Tenant rights

From Free net encyclopedia

Tenant rights can either refer to the rights tenants enjoy by law, or to the movement to acquire such rights. Tenant rights generally seek to protect renters from landlord neglect and unfair eviction, as well as secure fair, affordable housing.

Laws dealing with the landlord-tenant relationship vary greatly from state to state. These laws may provide some or all of the following for tenants:

• remedies for bad conditions
• privacy protections
• protection from landlord retaliation
• protection from exorbitant rent increases
• protection for the right to organize
• Just cause eviction controls

When a group of tenants feel they are being unfairly treated by a landlord, they may organize a tenant union. In the U.S. the right to do so is protected by federal law, and the EU also ensures the right to form a tenant union.

Peoples' organizations, such as ACORN, as well as many state and local groups can help renters organize a tenant union. Free legal advice can often be obtained from the local legal aid agencies.

External links

• Cleveland Tenants Organization
• Tenant Net

• Fair Housing -- It's Your Right

• Ontario Tenants Rights Canadalink title
• Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

• HUD Policies and Guidance
• Housing Discrimination Complaints
• Housing Discrimination: Fair Housing Regional Offices

Further reading

• Haas, Janay Ann. Landlord/Tenant Rights in Oregon. 248 pages. Self-Counsel Press, 7th edition, March 24, 2004. ISBN 1551804298.
• Moskovitz, Myron et al. California Tenants' Rights. 272 pages. Nolo.com, 15th edition, January 1, 2001. ISBN 0873376447.
• Sember, Brette McWhorter. Tenants' Rights in New York. 225 pages. Sphinx Publishing, May 1, 2000. ISBN 1572481226.

Historical reference

• Lawson, Robert and Mark Naison, editors. The Tenant Movement in New York City, 1904-1984. Rutgers University Press. Hardback: ISBN 0-8135-1203-4. Cloth: ISBN 0-8135-1158-5.

• A Pictorial History
• The Landlord as Czar: Pre-World War I Tenant Activity
• New York City Tenant Organizations and the Post-World War I Housing Crisis
• From Eviction Resistance to Rent Control: Tenant Activism in the Great Depression
• Tenant Power in the Liberal City, 1943-1971
• Tenant Responses to the Urban Housing Crisis, 1970-1984