Current Events > 8 years working on this ANTI-LANDLORD legislation and it finally

(+) Yeah! (+)

got out of committee

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2021/03/17/arkansas-committee-passes-basic-habitability-standards-for-renters-but-more-battles-ahead

Arkansas is the only state in the country that doesnt provide these minimal protections for renters. But landlords tanked a similar bill during the 2019 session, and theyre pushing hard against the 2021 version, arguing that the costs to keep their rental properties in compliance with the new requirements are too high.

For landlords who have argued that somehow this is going to be the end to all landlords: Every other state in the country has this already and the sky is not falling yet, Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R-Paragould) said as he made closing arguments for the bill hes sponsoring. I predict that if we pass this piece of legislation, for good landlords they wont even know it passed. It wouldnt affect them in the least.

Specifically, the bill requires only that properties are waterproof and protect occupants from the elements and that they have plumbing, heat and ventilation in good working order; hot and cold running water; electricity with wiring and equipment maintained in good working order; functioning smoke and carbon dioxide detectors and locks on the doors. Landlords would also have to keep rental properties free of dangerous mold and vermin infestations and provide floors, doors, windows, walls, ceilings, stairways, and railings that are in good repair so as not to materially affect the health and safety of the occupants.

The powerful Arkansas Realtors Association killed the 2019 version of this bill, and Gazaway and other sponsors have worked hard to create a meaningful measure that wont get shot down by the supermajority Republican legislature that tends to favor business interests.

its gonna die on the house floor monday, but... progress ??

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I used to inspect apartments for insects / bedbugs, and honestly the biggest issue isn't that the landlord keeps the apartment in poor condition, it's that the tenants completely wreck it, then can't afford to pay for repairs.

But to be fair, that was admittedly a small sample of apartments that I saw, in a relatively bad part of town.


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It's amazing that the landlord lobby in your state is so strong that they can continue to bully away legislation like this, despite it being the very bare minimum of responsibility owed in all 49 other states

DarkRoast posted...

I used to inspect apartments for insects / bedbugs, and honestly the biggest issue isn't that the landlord keeps the apartment in poor condition, it's that the tenants completely wreck it, then can't afford to pay for repairs.

But to be fair, that was admittedly a small sample of apartments that I saw, in a relatively bad part of town.

This is a bit different, in that there's no warranty of habitability in AK. The home could be fit for condemnation, yet still legally be rented and the tenant charged for repairs

Majority of tenants don't care about the place cause it's not theirs so they rarely take care of things. Also bugs are common in almost all buildings and very hard to eliminate especially roaches.

I'd personally never live in a condo/apartment ever again.

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@Shablagoo

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treewojima posted...

This is a bit different, in that there's no warranty of habitability in AK. The home could be fit for condemnation, yet still legally be rented

Well that's just crap, but not terribly surprising for Arkansas

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That's not anti landlord, that's human decency

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Ilishe posted...

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That's not anti landlord, that's human decency

you try telling the landlords that

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i just cannot imagine living in some of these southern states good fucking god

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Good work TC. I am proud of you.

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Delirious_Beard posted...

i just cannot imagine living in some of these southern states good fucking god

im in chicago and even some parts of Illinois can get that bad lol

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Ilishe posted...

That's not anti landlord, that's human decency

The irony here is that it's pro-landlord, as it provides a legally-mandated excuse to raise the rent.

Delirious_Beard posted...

i just cannot imagine living in some of these southern states good fucking god

Lol it's fine. We got better houses for cheaper. This isn't an accurate portrayal

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HODL_Austin_Era posted...

Majority of tenants don't care about the place cause it's not theirs so they rarely take care of things.

"I assert that renters are bad at cleaning, therefore nobody should be guaranteed housing that is not hazardous to their health"

This sort of lobbying is absurd as to border on comical. That there can exist a special interests group of housing owners that pay goverment officials and their party not to regulate housing standards...


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https://arktimes.com/news/arkansas-reporter/2013/02/14/no-rights-for-tenants-in-arkansas

In early October, Petrice Howard noticed hundreds of tiny water droplets beading the ceiling of her daughters bedroom in her rented Baring Cross home. Soon after, black mold spread across the walls, ceiling and baseboards of the bedroom and then spread to the bathroom and an adjoining room, her sons bedroom. Howard notified her landlord immediately.

A month later, when nothing had been done, she reported the problem to North Little Rock code enforcement. Two days after the citys inspection, Howard received a warning from Big Dog Homes LLC that because her house wasnt in order, she had broken her year-long lease, and no more rent would be accepted until she rectified the situation. Two weeks after that, Howard received a 10-day notice to vacate.

I wrote the owner a letter and asked what policy has she violated? You just cant go in and evict a person because their house isnt set up the way you want it, said Alicia Walton-Middleton, Howards neighbor and a criminal and family attorney. Walton-Middleton, who learned of Howards predicament through the Baring Cross Neighborhood Association, believes the eviction notice was retaliation against Howard for calling code officers.

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tote_all posted...

Is that the "landlords are literally the devil and hitler's evil offspring" guy?

Yeah. But he's only 15, so I suppose he has some excuse for being so ignorant of how the real world actually works.

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https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/02/04/pay-rent-or-face-arrest/abusive-impacts-arkansass-draconian-evictions-law

An Abusive Landlord is No Defense
Cashwana Chitman moved into a three bedroom house in October 2011 with her three children. She did not have running water for the first month. I had to fill water jugs to wash clothes and flush the toilet, she recalled. I had to take my kids to other peoples houses to showerand they were in school at the time. In February 2012, the landlord stopped providing receipts for Ms. Chitmans monthly rent of $800. When this had gone on for three months, Ms. Chitman began to think it was deliberate. She complained repeatedly, with no result. Then, at the beginning of summer, the air conditioning broke down in half of the house. The landlord made repeated promises to fix it, but never did. I got sick from heat exhaustion, she said. My daughter had to sleep on the sofa in the living room all summer.
By late July, Ms. Chitman had had enough. She decided to withhold her rent in protestsomething few US states allow a tenant to do and told her landlord that she would only pay when she got her receipts. She also called code enforcement to report her landlords failure to fix the air conditioner. A short while later, she found a 10 day eviction notice in her mailbox.
Ms. Chitman scrambled to find a new home, but failed to move out within the 10 day period. The police came looking for her at the primary care clinic where she had worked as a receptionist for five years. When the police showed up, I was out at lunch, she explained. When I came back, my coworkers were looking all crazy saying, The police were here looking for you. I said, Quit lying! It was so embarrassing. And Im the cashier! When the police caught up with her later that day, they told her she had a warrant out for her arrest and served her with a court date.
Ms. Chitman managed to pack the last of her things into a borrowed truck the night before her court appearance and moved in with a friend. The day of her hearing, she told Human Rights Watch, I dont have anywhere to go. Im looking for a house. My things are in storage. We have been completely displaced.
Ms. Chitman came to court prepared. She had a sheaf of papers under one arm and a laptop where she had stored recordings of conversations shed had with her landlord to demand receipts. The judge would not hear any of that, but Ms. Chitman was lucky. Even though she had admitted facts that established her as guilty, the judge dismissed all charges when Ms. Chitman said she had already moved out of the house. The entire hearing lasted about three minutes.
Afterwards, Ms. Chitman was angry. She had wanted to present her side of the story. [My landlord] sent the police to my job as if Im a criminal and Ive done something wrong, she said. I was waiting for the judge to ask me questions. She did not understand that, legally, none of her complaints were in any way relevant to the charges against her.

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Balrog0 posted...

Specifically, the bill requires only that properties are waterproof and protect occupants from the elements and that they have plumbing, heat and ventilation in good working order; hot and cold running water; electricity with wiring and equipment maintained in good working order; functioning smoke and carbon dioxide detectors and locks on the doors. Landlords would also have to keep rental properties free of dangerous mold and vermin infestations and provide floors, doors, windows, walls, ceilings, stairways, and railings that are in good repair so as not to materially affect the health and safety of the occupants.

This is what they were fighting and people wonder why landlords are so hated

I dont like landlording. The way it is structured gives the landlord all the power in this equation.

Landlords need to either change if they want to still have jobs as landlords, so that its just a job (property management) rather than exploitation

Or we will have no choice but to spend federal revenue on building as much amazing housing as there is demand for.

and well wealth tax Bezos to pay for it so we dont need to rely on his charitable demeanor and holy philanthropy for it

edit: actually yeah just build as much housing as is needed. Make it part of Green New Deal spending.

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Doe posted...

"I assert that renters are bad at cleaning, therefore nobody should be guaranteed housing that is not hazardous to their health"

This sort of lobbying is absurd as to border on comical. That there can exist a special interests group of housing owners that pay goverment officials and their party not to regulate housing standards...

TBF, it's only partially due to outside bribery, tons of these legislators are landlords so they have skin in the game directly

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tote_all posted...

Is that the "landlords are literally the devil and hitler's evil offspring" guy?

Gamerguymass posted...

Yeah. But he's only 15, so I suppose he has some excuse for being so ignorant of how the real world actually works.

These are the posts you guys decided to make in a topic about shit ass lobbyists bribing the government to let landlords abuse the shit out of people?



Giant_Aspirin posted...

@Shablagoo

ty for the tag

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TC what do you think about Green New Deal spending as a way to fund the construction of N houses?

Where N is the number of households who want a house and are currently renting.

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If you can't afford the bare minimum of upkeep as a landlord, then you shouldn't be a landlord.

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EmbraceOfDeath posted...

If you can't afford the bare minimum of upkeep as a landlord, then you shouldn't be a landlord.

You would think that argument would work, but no

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tote_all posted...

I don't live in the US.

Ok?

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shockthemonkey posted...

Holy fuck how is Arkansas so shitty that they dont even have the most bare minimum requirements for landlords?

It's the perfect issue for cultural conservatives and business conservatives to agree on. Literally one of the representatives was a cosponsor until someone told her it was a "little rock issue" (it only effects bad black people in the city)

At the same time, chamber of commerce dudes get to talk about how the free market is best when people can choose their housing. If they want to spend a little less and not have a smoke detector or running water, they don't need the nanny state barging in. It's almost like you want people to be homeless

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tote_all posted...

So yeah that's why you're constant state of melty is more entertaining for me.

I also built a house and plan to rent it or sell it in a couple years, so I must be the devil to you.

Why are you trolling in my topic about human rights abuses?

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tote_all posted...

I got distracted.

Lol fair enough

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Its not fair imo. Seeing news about abusive landlording shouldnt trigger people to think of and attack me. It would be fair if the suffering of others instead triggered an empathetic, human response.

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Shablagoo posted...

Its not fair imo. Seeing news about abusive landlording shouldnt trigger people to think of and attack me. It would be fair if the suffering of others instead triggered an empathetic, human response.

Maybe you should try doing a 180 so people don't immediately associate you with the worst things they encounter.

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Ilishe posted...

Maybe you should try doing a 180 so people don't immediately associate you with the worst things they encounter.

Thats like saying Greta Thunberg should start promoting fossil fuels and unchecked, habitat-destroying industry because conservatives get pissed at her when she warns of the oncoming apocalypse of global warming. No, I think Ill keep criticizing the unfair nature of landlording. Even the father of capitalism, Adam Smith, recognized it completely. Its really quite a strange thing for people to now be falling head-over-heels for the concept.

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The rascally landlords are at it again!
They've filed their own stripped down version of habitability that actually takes away tenant rights and has no language about health and safety.

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shockthemonkey posted...

^so what are the odds that one passes?

I'd venture the guess that neither passes.

shockthemonkey posted...

^so what are the odds that one passes?

I dunno, we're working on a plan of action now. We think we need one more no vote to stop it.

Questionmarktarius posted...

I'd venture the guess that neither passes.

If this one gets out of committee, it will become law

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but how will indie landlords survive if they have to provide walls this is just going to make the big property companies bigger /s

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ssk9716757 posted...

but how will indie landlords survive

The "indie" landlord is likely to be largely unaffected, outside of maybe having to drop by walmart for a carbon monoxide detector.

Objections to a warranty of habitability with teeth should be met with knocking objectors' teeth out.

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ssk9716757 posted...

but how will indie landlords survive if they have to provide walls this is just going to make the big property companies bigger

Lmfao we literally exempted landlords with only 1 rental unit.

Some mother fucker landlord testifying against it had the balls to say he was a "small landlord with only about 50 units" eat my balls dude

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Balrog0 posted...

Every other state in the country has this already and the sky is not falling yet

"Other people have X" is not an argument for having X. Implementing the landlord legistlation would cause the profits of landlords to fall. Capitalism only goes in the direction of more profits, never less profits.

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