Tenants Testify at DC Council Hearing

Bill 18-104, the Tenant Access to Justice Reform Act of 2009, seeks to redress a fundamental imbalance in the landlord-tenant relationship that burdens tenants living in substandard and often dangerous conditions.

The Current Enforcement System is Inadequate and Ineffective.

•  The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) brought 843 complaints against landlords between 2004 and 2008.  Nearly half those cases were dismissed before reaching a verdict.

•  Furthermore, tenants experience is that enforcement actions are rare.  Even when the agency finds violations, it rarely re-inspects promptly or pursues remedies.

•  Between 2004 and 2008, judges assessed $572,000 in fines, but DCRA has only collected $112,000 less than 20% of that amount.

•    Even the District’s latest “slumlord suit” has made little dent in the overall enforcement pattern.  The lawsuit targeted only 13 buildings for code enforcement, leaving untouched many other properties in serious need of attention.  Nor has the lawsuit signaled any fundamental change in the District’s enforcement efforts.

Bill 18-104 enables tenants to take immediate action to improve their living conditions and bolsters tenants’ ability to hold landlords accountable.

• Currently, when the landlord fails to make repairs, the tenants’ only course of action is to with hold rent. This is a risky strategy that puts tenants immediately and unnecessarily at risk of eviction.

• Tenants have no effective, affirmative way to take action against their landlords and obtain repairs.
-    Filing suit in the Civil Division is expensive and slow.  It costs $120 to file a case, as opposed to $15 in Landlord-Tenant Court.  It can take a year or more to get to trial, as opposed to a matter of weeks in Landlord-Tenant Court.
-    The tenant petition process is also ineffective for this purpose, because the judges at OAH cannot order repairs.

•When the city does bring enforcement actions there is no requirement that it notify tenants.  As a result, tenants - -who often would be crucial witnesses – have no opportunity to participate or to ensure that the cases move forward.

• Bill 18-104 permits tenants to bring cases in landlord and tenant court.  This change would give tenants the same speedy, inexpensive remedy for code violations that landlords have when tenants fail to pay rent.

Bill 18-104 will not overburden the court system.

•    In DC if a landlord won’t make repairs, the simplest option is for the tenant to withhold rent and wait for the landlord to bring a case in landlord tenant court.

•  There is every reason to believe that many of the tenant-filed cases that will be brought under this legislation would have ended up in landlord-tenant court anyway with the landlord seeking unpaid rent. 

•  Moreover, a survey of similar jurisdictions, including Baltimore City, shows that the number of tenant-initiated suits is small compared to the number of eviction cases filed by landlords – typically less than five percent of the overall caseload. 

•  What the legislation will do is allow tenants access to a quick, inexpensive, relatively simple process for forcing landlords to make repairs. 

•  Thus, when litigation is the only way to make repairs happen, this legislation will allow it to happen sooner, before the problems become life or safety-threatening, and without the tenant placing his or her home unnecessarily at risk by forcing an eviction suit.

•  Right now, the Superior Court devotes resources to nearly 40,000 cases per year filed by landlords, and virtually none to cases filed by tenants.  This imbalance is unacceptable and unfair.