Allegheny County Council on Tuesday approved legislation aimed at protecting tenants\u2019 rights and stopping landlords from retaliating against renters who flag problems.<\/p>\n
The measure bans landlords from punishing renters who join tenants\u2019 associations, request repairs to ensure housing conditions are safe, file complaints with government agencies, speak with media outlets about poor living conditions or exercise any other rights that renters are guaranteed by law.<\/p>\n
Under the legislation, a tenant who believes they\u2019re being targeted for requesting repairs, joining a tenants\u2019 council or filing a complaint can force the landlord to prove that\u2019s not the case \u2014 rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n
Maddy McGrady, co-chair of the Housing Justice Table, said the bill flips the dynamic and puts the burden on landlords to prove an eviction isn\u2019t retaliatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, the balance of power has skewed heavily in favor of landlords,\u201d she said. \u201cIt gives tenants a fair chance to exercise their legal rights without fear of losing their housing. It shifts the burden of proof from the tenant to the landlord.\u201d<\/p>\n
It can be challenging for renters to prove retaliation, McGrady said, and no comprehensive data is tracked on how often people are evicted as retribution for demanding better living conditions.<\/p>\n
There are about 161,000 renter-occupied households in Allegheny County, according to the legislation.<\/p>\n
Councilman Jordan Botta \u2014 who co-sponsored the bill with Councilman Alex Rose and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato \u2014 said he has had poor experiences with bad landlords firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of issues with tenants who have conditions that are sub-prime at best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Currently, the burden is \u201chighly on the tenant to prove their case,\u201d Botta said.<\/p>\n
After the county executive signs the bill, that will change to a requirement for a landlord to prove they\u2019re not retaliating if a renter alleges they were. Botta said this would play out in magisterial district courts prior to an eviction.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Suzanne Filiaggi was the lone dissenting vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an anti-landlord provision,\u201d Botta said. \u201cIt\u2019s a pro-fairness provision. A lot of landlords want to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Botta said his hope is that the bill ensures people feel safe from the threat of being kicked out of their home if they want to seek help or raise concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, no one should ever have to choose between speaking up about unsafe living conditions or having a roof over their head,\u201d the councilman said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allegheny County Council on Tuesday approved legislation aimed at protecting tenants\u2019 rights and stopping landlords from retaliating against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-149247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}