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.
RUM strongly urges the General Assembly to protect Maryland renters from lease non-renewals and “Tenant Holding Over” evictions during the emergency and economic recovery.
On Tuesday February 23, more than two hundred renters and activists urged their legislators to support critical legislative proposals now pending in the Maryland General Assembly to win housing justice in 2021.
Renters, now approaching 40 percent of state residents, know what’s at stake. They know what’s on the table. They are watching and waiting for bold action. Although temporary protections from eviction are helpful, they do little to change the underlying destabilization in Maryland’s housing economy.
Protect our Homes Day is Renters United Maryland’s virtual lobby night for the 2021 Maryland General Assembly session.
Learn about HB 52/SB 454, the Eviction Diversion and Defense bill, in the video below and download RUM’s bill summary and testimony template so that you can support this legislation. Written testimony to support SB 454 is due on Friday Feb 5 by 3PM. The bill will be heard in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on… Read More »Supporter Kit: HB 52/SB 454 Eviction Diversion and Defense
HB 52/SB 454 is a key reform to Maryland’s eviction process. Learn about the bill in this video and then take action to support the legislation.
Some months in 2020 also saw a higher-than-average number of “tenant-holding-over” actions, which can occur when a tenant remains on a property after a lease ends. Under recently proposed rental relief legislation, landlords couldn’t refuse to renew a lease based on “rent delinquency and lease expiration” during the pandemic.
When the Maryland General Assembly reconvenes in January, they plan on introducing the Housing Justice Package which would prohibit most evictions until April 2022, urge landlords to avoid evictions when possible and give tenants a lawyer.
Included in the legislation is financial relief for landlords through a state-wide program matching state and county funds. It would also prohibit rent delinquency and lease expiration as grounds for evictions says Shah. It would also “require landlords to use rental assistance before they file and put people in jeopardy of people losing their homes. And also providing a lawyer to renters who end up in an eviction case before a district court.”