Michigan Democrats Propose New Tenant Protection Bills
In an effort to enhance tenant rights, Michigan House Democrats have unveiled a legislative package comprising over a dozen bills aimed at bolstering protections against evictions and unjust housing practices.
The proposed measures include a bill designed to seal eviction records, as well as another that would prevent landlords from refusing applicants based solely on poor credit history.
Khadja Erickson from the Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center highlighted that landlords frequently rely on past eviction records, regardless of their age or context. She emphasized, “Providing ways for people to seal an eviction record, but also forcing [landlords] to provide real reasons to deny people and then revealing those reasons so that a tenant could then take that information and increase their chances of finding tenancy elsewhere is really, really important for reducing the amount of people going into homelessness,” during a press briefing on the new legislation.
Among the proposed bills is one that aims to restrict the range of miscellaneous fees landlords can levy. Co-sponsor State Representative Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) criticized these charges, referring to them as “junk fees.”
“Whether it’s a move-in fee, a move-out fee, redecorating fee, whether it’s a technology fee, whether it’s a — in Ann Arbor, we have waitlist fees for housing that may never become available in the first place — and folks don’t get that money back,” Morgan stated.
These legislative efforts follow previous renters’ rights bills that failed to pass when Democrats previously held control of the House of Representatives. The new package might encounter similar challenges now that Republicans hold the majority.
One bill from the previous term, concerning application fees, faced resistance from small business and realtor groups who argued that it could drive up rents or result in overregulation.
Despite the anticipated opposition, Morgan remains committed to refining these bills. He remarked, “We’ve got to keep doing this, fine-tuning these bills, packaging solutions to the complex problems that residents are facing with their housing. Getting that ready so that when we have a majority again, we can get these things passed.”
House Republicans, when approached for comments on Thursday, indicated they were not sufficiently informed about the new legislative proposals to comment before the deadline.
—
Read More Michigan News
