Link | Publication: Ally Schweitzer, WAMU 88.5 FM | Date: Mar 12, 2021
Excerpt
Sponsors of the legislation that would ban tenant holding over actions through April 2022 also want to prohibit landlords from evicting tenants who receive receive rental assistance from the state.
If property owners can still terminate a lease after their tenants pay what they owe, the money will amount to little more than a bailout for landlords, says Zafar Shah with the Public Justice Center. He says landlords are less likely to keep a tenant they predict will fall behind on rent again, even after the pandemic wanes.
“As long as landlords can non-renew leases, they’re probably going to do it,” Shah says.
But the attorney says he doubts that legislation working its way through the General Assembly will offer the durable layers of tenant protections that he and other supporters are seeking.
“If want to have effective utilization of the rent relief money, we’ve got to do something on the legal end to make sure that there are carrots and sticks,” the attorney says. But the final bill is “probably not going to include as strong a protection as we want.”