Can a City Inspect a Private Rental Home Against the Landlord's Wishes

[budman1138]

My question involves civil rights in the State of: Can City of Lancaster by their own power come in at will and without warrant or reason to search my private property in City of Lancaster TX calling it an Signal Family Rental Inspection Program searching for any violations they can cite you for or possibly illegal items they can have you arrested for. Inspecting on the outside is one thing if they'd had a complaint but to go inside private property that I've worked and paying for without reason or warrant ( is this Germany?) I need someone help please I don't have lot of money to fight this but it's burning me up inside. So many men and women fought and died for our rights and here these guys come stripping them away without any thought.
They say it's stop so many renter, section 8, and poor people from living here as city council don't want "those kind of people here" .
I have another case United State District Court District of Connecticut , Thomas M. Dutkiewicz v City of Bristol, ET AL and he won sayin parts of it was unconstitutional 1. The Statue- A simple reading of the statue shows that inspections are arbitrary. And they don't have the powers to search nonconsensual searches.
Can anyone offer help on how to stop them? I would sure be grateful. What will they do next, Put ear tags on all tenants and landlords so they can track movements or stone them at city hall....

[budwad]

Now that you have finished your rant, do you want to tell us what this is really about? Is the city looking for zoning violations such as single family homes that have been converted into illegal apartments? If that is what we are talking about, the city has the authority I'm sure to do that.

And then there is also this:

Inspection required

All single-family rental properties offered for rent or lease shall be inspected upon any change of tenancy according to the rental property checklist, of the adopted building and maintenance code requirements for site grading and drainage, property sanitation, sidewalks and driveways, accessory structure, pools, hot tubs, spas, extermination, exterior building conditions, interior building conditions, plumbing systems, water systems, sanitary drainage, mechanical equipment, combustion air, electrical hazards, smoke detectors, and security devices, as adopted by this code.

Certificate issued

When the building official determines that a rental property and premises are in compliance with the provisions of this and other applicable codes, the building official shall issue a certificate of occupancy.

http://www.lancaster-tx.com/index.aspx?nid=1045

So it appears that the city has an ordinance requiring a compliance inspection each time there is a change of tenancy and a new certificate is issued.

[LawResearcherMissy]

is this Germany?

Stop that. Modern Germany is much more progressive than the backwater you live in.

There are laws that landlords must comply with if they intend to be landlords. This is true in every jurisdiction in the US, and yours is no exception. You either follow the rules, or you don't get to be a landlord.