Carpentersville is increasing the number of inspections it does of single-family rental homes in response to a March fire in which three young brothers died.
Inspections by village code compliance officers will be done every two years rather than every four, as had been the practice, Village Manager Brad Stewart said. The annual single-family home rental licensing fee will go up from $125 to $300 effective Thursday, Jan. 1.
Fees to inspect other rental units, including apartment buildings, condos, townhomes and duplexes, range from $18.75 to $62.50 and won’t be changing.
Stewart said the code amendment will affect about 800 homes in the village, he said. The inspection fee has not gone up since 2010.
The change was triggered by the March 30 fire in the 1700 block of Kingston Circle that resulted in the deaths of three toddlers, twins Jayden and Kayden Corsello, 2, and their brother, Xander Corsello, 1.
The children were sleeping on the lower floor of a split-level home, which reportedly had no fire sprinklers or fire alarms, officials said. Three adults on a higher floor were able to escape with help from firefighters but two dogs also died.
An investigation was unable to determine the cause of the blaze, officials said.
The Kingston Circle fire “was certainly significant to the village. I think it really impacted our community in a lot of ways,” Stewart said. “What we are looking at in reference to increasing inspections is reflective of our way to meaningfully impact public safety.”
Increasing the fees comes down to a public safety issue, he said.
“We focused on the single-family residential units because they were our area of biggest concern” following the fire, Stewart said. “While the property in question was up to date on rental inspection … we thought there was significant public concern that we increase the frequency of inspections.”
Carpentersville identified that single-family rentals “pose a higher risk of potential catastrophe,” he said. The issue is that those properties may not be maintained like apartments or have proper fire detection and suppression, he said.
Adding more inspections will be something current staff code compliance officers can handle, Stewart said. Carpentersville filled a vacant position of a building/plumbing inspector this year to help, he said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
