More than 200 Bellingham rentals near WWU campus fail first city inspections

About 42 percent of rental units failed an initial inspection in the first round of city-required rental inspections for problems ranging from wobbly or missing handrails to exit windows that wouldn’t open or missing carbon monoxide detectors.

About 536 rental units were involved in the first round of inspections which started in June and are expected to be finished by the end of September in the Sehome neighborhood, located north of Western Washington University.

Of those, 231 units passed or passed with conditions at the first appointment.

Many of those conditions had to do with minor issues, such as smoke or carbon monoxide detectors that needed to be put back on a wall or have a battery installed, said Emma Burnfield, Bellingham’s rental registration specialist.