An Arvada building code that has roiled local residents and real estate agents over the past year could soon get a face-lift, local officials say.

The code — adopted by Arvada and a handful of other metro-area cities in 2007 — created what many consider to be onerous requirements for owners trying to sell their homes. The code's requirements, in some cases, necessitate thousands of dollars' worth of home improvements before an owner can sell, according to local real estate agents.

"There's all kinds of nuisance items with it," said Ed Tomlinson, an Arvada Realtor who says that several pending home deals have been held up because the city required the seller to make improvements before the property could be sold. "It's caused all kinds of problems."

The issue stems from a 2004 decision by the city of Arvada — along with Aurora, Denver, Lakewood, Boulder, Castle Rock, Parker and others — to adopt what's known as the International Building Code. The code, which was originally drafted by the International Code Council, outlines a uniform set of construction standards for builders.

Arvada, along with a handful of other cities, also followed up by adopting an associated code called the International Property Maintenance Code in 2007. That code deals primarily with fire-safety concerns.

"It's the maintenance code that has caused a problem," said Lynn Zenger, another Arvada Realtor who has had two clients who have had to shell out thousands of dollars before they could sell their homes.

Most of the problems have come from the fire-safety elements of the maintenance code, which outlines requirements like having operable windows and proper ways to escape from a basement. In some of the Arvada cases, the problem has been a lack of ingress and egress via windows in basements that were refinished without obtaining city approval.

With many Arvada houses built before the code was adopted, costs "could be astronomical" for home sellers, said Bob Dyer, an Arvada city councilman, who says city officials plan to assemble a consortium of real estate professionals, architects, property developers and residents to study the current codes in hopes of having a reformed measure on the books by the fall.

"In the meantime, Arvada gets a black eye because a lot of these houses are on the market," said Dyer, who notes that while other Denver-area municipalities adopted the maintenance code, "I've been told that we're the problem city."

City officials hope to accomplish several things, Dyer said.

The first concerns a specific section of the maintenance code that says it is against the law to "sell, transfer, mortgage, lease or otherwise dispose" of a property that isn't up to code.

"It's going to be deleted," Dyer said.

City officials also are looking to remove the requirement that homes must have egress windows in the basement, Dyer said.

Also, officials want to remove the ability of a citizen to anonymously complain about a property. Under a new proposal, a citizen could still complain but would have to sign the complaint. Right now, residents can make anonymous phone calls and send anonymous e-mails, which led to Arvada's current problems.

Originally, a renter, who was leasing a house from an owner who specialized in fix-and-flips, had complained to the city about a problem with the house, Dyer said.

The city investigated, which upset the homeowner, who then used real estate listings that advertised finished basements and compared them with city building permits.

He then forwarded discrepancies anonymously to city officials, who were obligated to investigate.