Landlords and tenants in Orange City, Iowa are protesting Sioux County city's new rental ordinance that enables authorities to enter rental homes for inspection without any warrant. The new ordinance enables authorities in Iowa to seek an administrative warrant from a judge, providing an inspector the authority to enter the property even if the owner or tenant does not consent to the search.
"An administrative warrant is not the same as a traditional search warrant," Institute for Justice attorney Rob Peccola explained, as reported by WND. "The government doesn't need to suspect you of any wrongdoing to get an administrative warrant and enter your home without your permission."
Peccola is working with Orange City tenants Amanda Wink, Bryan Singer, and Erika Nordyke and their landlords, Bev Van Dam and Josh Dykstra in a lawsuit objecting to the invasive rental ordinance that they believe violates their constitutional rights. The lawsuit challenges the city and Kurt Frederes, a code enforcement officer and building inspector, Sioux City Journal reported.
The Orange City rental ordinance that enables officers to just enter rental homes for inspection without warrant uses a loophole in the Fourth Amendment, which allows the city to get an administrative warrant that bypasses a tenant or landlord and enables city officers access to their homes even without any suspicion of illegal activities. Typical search warrants are issued when there is an evidence-based suspicion that there are illegal activities going on in the premises.
Wink, Van Dam, Nordyke, and Singer are asking the Iowa judge to "declare the ordinance unconstitutional and issue an injunction preventing the city from seeking the administrative warrants," SCJ reported. Nordyke, who with her fiance Singer had been renting a home on Delaware Avenue for six years said "It's not that we're hiding anything, we're just private. It feels like we're being invaded. I get why they want to do it, but if there's nothing wrong, why have the inspector just randomly show up to look at it?"
City Manager Earl Woudstra claims that the rental ordinance that allows officers to just enter rental homes for inspection without any warrant was implemented to ensure "all our citizens have the opportunity to live in a safe environment. We're trying to take a reasonable approach."
According to the Institute of Justice, the rental ordinance was established amidst a spike in COVID-19 cases in February, during which Orange City sent out letters to property owners ordering them to "register their rental properties for government officials to search."
"It's unconstitutional for the government to search through your property without a reason," Dystra said. "A cop cannot enter a property without a warrant. What makes city officials think they can barge in when police officers cannot?"
The rental ordinance was developed in a way that an inspector can search through a tenant's closets and other private spaces and in the event he finds questionable findings, will be able to report it to the authorities. Woudstra argues that inspections will not include officers "rummaging through [renters'] personal effects." He added that while updating the ordinances, city leaders found that the safety concerns of people living in the 480 rental units in town had not yet been addressed.
The case remains pending in the district court in Sioux County, Iowa.
