The Montgomery County Council has passed legislation mandating that landlords meet the same consumer protection standards as retail businesses, removing existing exemptions and increasing enforcement against housing code violations.
Bethesda Magazine reports that Councilmember Kristin Mink sponsored Bill 6-25, Consumer Protection for Renters, which passed unanimously on Tuesday. Council President Kate Stewart, Vice President Will Jawando, and Councilmember Dawn Luedtke were co-sponsors of the bill.
The bill received endorsements from several labor unions and housing organizations, including MCGEO, SEIU Local 500, Action in Montgomery, CASA, the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, the Islamic Society of the Washington Area, the Enclave Tenant Association, Jews United for Justice, Everyday Canvassing, Progressive Maryland, and the Housing Initiative Partnership.
Under current Montgomery County law, landlords are exempt from some consumer protection laws because they are not considered “merchants.” The legislation will amend the language of the laws to include landlords under the category of “merchants,” which will enable government officials to hold landlords accountable if they provide unfit rental housing, do not provide amenities as advertised, fail to repair essential building services, impose junk fees, or if they have committed chronic housing code violations.
Mink says that the loophole has made it difficult to enforce fines when landlords violate building regulations and tenant safety laws.
“Once this bill is signed into law, rental housing, typically tenants’ largest expense, will no longer be exempted from our County’s Consumer Protection laws,” Mink said in a press release. “Because of that exemption, tenants have had no meaningful recourse if they discover they’ve been sold a false bill of goods and are locked into a lease with a landlord that chronically and illegally fails to meet basic obligations. A handful of the worst actors have wasted a significant amount of County code enforcement time for years on end, as they continue pitching their buildings to prospective tenants as safe, healthy, even luxury dwellings.”
“Landlords who follow the laws will be unaffected, but those whose business model relies on our inability to enforce tenant protection laws can soon be taken to court by the County with far more significant consequences on the line. I am grateful to County Executive Marc Elrich and my colleagues for their support, and to community members for their advocacy,” Mink continued.
County Executive Marc Elrich also publicly supported the bill.
“This legislation improves the County’s ability to bring landlords who repeatedly violate tenant protections in the County Code into compliance,” Elrich said. “Unfortunately, a minority of landlords rely on delaying the fixing of housing code violations or engaging in deceptive trade practices as part of their business model. They rely on six-month-plus delays in our overburdened District Court and the practice of judges to reduce fines to negligible amounts. The results are tenants waiting long periods of time for housing code violations to be fixed and this minority of landlords having only minor consequences for not fixing the violations in a timely manner. The Office of Consumer Protection and the Office of the County Attorney will now be able to sue landlords in Circuit Court who have a demonstrated history of property neglect, noncompliance with citations, and deceptive trade practices to seek injunctive relief and damages. The truth is most landlords do not engage in these practices, but those who do will learn quickly that they must either change their business model or face the more serious consequences provided in this bill.”
Despite the wide support, Matt Losak of the downtown Silver Spring-based housing nonprofit Montgomery County Renters Alliance says there is still more work to do.
“Any step to improve the ability of county government to enforce renters’ rights is progress,” Losak said in a statement to the Source. “However, we are increasingly concerned that existing enforcement is not strong enough, and for too many renters, adding another enforcement door through Consumer Protection may add to the confusion and frustration many renters now face when seeking help. We hope the Council will consider strengthening the process of enforcement so that renters pursuing their rights, whether through Code, Landlord and Tenant Affairs, Rent Stabilization, Human Rights or Consumer Protection, find no wrong door.”
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