Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Elrich introduces landlord-tenant reform bill that would increase tenants' power

Montgomery County Councilmember Marc Elrich (D - At-large) has introduced legislation that would implement several landlord-tenant policy changes for rental housing.

Bill 19-15 would ban month-to-month surcharges for tenants, require leases to contain "clear, understandable language," allow tenants to withdraw from a lease renewal within 2 days of signing it, require additional reporting of rent increase data, and create incentives for landlords to stay within the county's voluntary rent increase parameters.

In addition, the legislation would mandate annual inspection of 100% of rental apartments, rather than the 10% inspection requirement now. Buildings with a solid record of code compliance would be exempt from the increased inspections.

“I have long been interested in promoting strategies to preserve affordable housing and provide some security for renters,” Councilmember Elrich said in a press release. “These proposed reforms, annual inspections, standard lease, more flexible lease deadlines, better data collection and reporting, are first steps toward improving the quality of life for tenants, who now are about one-third of the county population.”

The bill is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Nancy Navarro (D - District 4) and Tom Hucker (D - District 5).

Photo via Montgomery County Council website

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about adding in the bill that is the deadbeats don't pay their rent they can kick them out the next day instead of going through a long process.

Anonymous said...

7:28 Then they add in the bill what to do with all the homeless people kicked out of their apartments.

Anonymous said...

7:28 I agree. I'm a landlord and my last tenant really knew how to work the system. It's basically 6-14 weeks to get a tenant out for non-payment of rent. First you get the order to pay, but your court date is 3-4 weeks later. Then they have 5 days to pay, and if they don't you file for eviction, which takes the court another 2-3 weeks. Then once you have that, you take it to the Sheriff, who takes 4-6 weeks to evict. Meanwhile landlords are losing money while the tenants enjoy free use of the property.

Meanwhile in Virginia, the entire process takes less than 5 days.

Anonymous said...

Let condo owners take another bath on their home value by scaring away investors from the market and let renters deal with higher rent prices because the fear of county fees.

Steve D. said...

"Anonymous said...

7:28 I agree. I'm a landlord and my last tenant really knew how to work the system. It's basically 6-14 weeks to get a tenant out for non-payment of rent. First you get the order to pay, but your court date is 3-4 weeks later. Then they have 5 days to pay, and if they don't you file for eviction, which takes the court another 2-3 weeks. Then once you have that, you take it to the Sheriff, who takes 4-6 weeks to evict. Meanwhile landlords are losing money while the tenants enjoy free use of the property.

8:34 AM"

Maybe, but the tenant certainly has to forfeit his/her dignity in the process.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Dignity is paying the rent on time.

Anonymous said...

Agreed.