Building department inspections decline from last year’s high, city will continue to crack down on college housing

The Building Department has identified AirBnBs and college housing as regulatory targets for city enforcement efforts in the coming year.

This recommendation comes from the Annual Code Enforcement Report, a summary of the department’s activity from October 2024 to September 2025. 

Building Inspector Brian Bower submitted the report to the City Council for its Nov. 24 meeting, along with a table of the violation reports the department received in the past year and an inventory of the department’s five-year multi-family housing inspections.

According to the table, the Building Department investigated 304 possible building or zoning code violations this year — significantly below last year’s 396, but more in line with previous years’ rates. 

Nearly 65% of those were in response to potential violations of the zoning code as opposed to the building code, a higher percentage than in past years.

The report also outlines major Building Department projects and recommendations for future city regulation and enforcement. The department has continued to focus on the same two projects as last year: completing inspections at ReNew properties, formerly Gardencrest, after multiple building code violations last year, as well as “complaints regarding residential single family off campus college housing.” 

The department has identified seasonal college housing as a regulatory target since at least 2022, citing “public outcry” against single-family homes used for college housing and stating that they create disturbances that disrupt neighbors. 

In the table of 2025 building and zoning code violations attached to the report, only six entries mention college housing, although nine more refer to potential unlicensed rooming houses. The report mentions that many issues surrounding illegal rooming houses have to do with college student housing, and the distinction has previously come up in a high-profile zoning board case surrounding rental properties used primarily by students.

In other recommendations, the report talks about houses being used as AirBnBs — an issue that came up eight times in building violations this year — and recommends that the city regulate AirBnBs as tourist homes. It also suggests that the city prosecute “illegal apartment violations” in criminal court.

About 51 of the 304 violations it investigated this year pertained to illegal apartments or unpermitted home usages, 16 for unpermitted businesses and 21 for illegal parking on private property. 

A total of 77 complaints came from the city’s Nuisance Property ordinance, which includes issues like excessive trash, overgrown vegetation and peeling paint. The report also listed 15 noise complaints, although the department is currently working with the police department and the City Council to determine its role in responding to noise complaints in the future. 

Other issues the department investigated included unsafe structure notices and unpermitted construction. Additional violations included vehicles driving into buildings and chickens on private property (three each). It sent a total of seven cases to the Law Department to resolve.

Ward 9 had the most entries in the log by a significant margin, at 57; the runner-up, Ward 5, had 41.

The report also explained how the Building Department aims to inspect all of Waltham’s over 7,900 multi-family units at least every five years for safety concerns and permit compliance. The department reported that it inspected 445 units in multi-family buildings over the past year. This number is lower than in 2024, when the city inspected over 1,000 units, but in line with 2023’s 439 inspections.