Tenants Rights

Community Environmental Health Resource Center
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Among the tools that healthy homes advocates have at their service are state and (sometimes) local tenant-landlord laws.

Editor's Note: Trying to create a healthy home in an apartment can be challenging, especially when the landlord, super or neighbors don't agree that the chemicals they use can affect your family. If you are concerned about toxins, such as lead, radon and pesticides, in your apartment, this article contributed by the Community Environmental Health Resource Center (CEHRC) informs you of your rights and how you can change the situation.

Among the tools that healthy homes advocates have at their service are state and (sometimes) local tenant-landlord laws. These laws may provide some or all of the following for tenants:

• remedies for bad conditions,

• privacy protections,

• protection from landlord retaliation,

• protection for the right to organize, and/or

• protection from exorbitant rent increases.

Tenants rights laws supplement other laws (the federal lead disclosure rule, state and local housing and/or building codes, state or local environmental protection laws and state and/or local lead poisoning prevention laws) that also may provide leverage for your efforts to improve substandard housing and protect residents.

Tenants can exercise their rights far more effectively if they organize to do so collectively. Often tenants live in multi-unit buildings or complexes. Sometimes, the landlord of a problem building owns other problems buildings in the neighborhood. There’s safety and power in numbers. The larger the group of tenants working together for improvements, the more likely tenants will win.

Tenants rights laws vary greatly from place to place. In some states, they are virtually nonexistent; in other places they may be your most potent tools. It’s a good idea to become familiar with your local tenant-landlord laws and establish relationships with experts and civil legal advocates who may be able to assist you with interpretation and/or take on cases on behalf of tenants. If you are unfamiliar with tenant-landlord law and tenant organizing, you may want to try to collaborate with an organization that has more experience in this area.

In some states and cities, specific statutes and laws are on the books covering these issues. In many places, tenants rights are provided through common law, or court cases. In any case, how the laws are enforced is just as important as the laws themselves. Enforcement is not something that’s frozen in place forever; it can be improved by your advocacy and organizing efforts.

The following links on CEHRC's website provide detailed information and resources for tenants and tenant organizers. The material in both sections borrow heavily from fact sheets developed by Jean Zotter at the Boston Urban Asthma Coalition and from The Tenants Union website.

Rights — This section provides more detail about how state and local tenants rights laws are related to healthy housing and where to get more information and assistance about these laws.
Tenant Organizing — This section provides nuts and bolts information about tenant organizing and links to other tenant organizing resources.

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