Title
An Ordinance to Amend Sections 8:530 and 8:531 of Chapter 105 (Housing Code) of Title VII (Building Regulations) of the Code of the City of Ann Arbor (ORD-24-03)
Memorandum
A majority-approximately 55%-of the households in the City of Ann Arbor are renter-occupied. The City is in the midst of a housing crisis. Rental housing in the City is in high demand and short supply. This high demand has contributed to pressure on tenants to renew increasingly early into a lease period, which negatively impacts tenants both economically and non-economically.
In 2021 and 2022, the Ann Arbor City Council passed an ordinance amendment to the Early Leasing Ordinance (ORD No. 21-22) and enacted the Right to Renew Ordinance (ORD No. 22-15) to regulate leasing transactions in the interest of the health, safety, and welfare of City residents to reduce the pressure on tenants to renew early into a lease period.
Since these changes were enacted, pressure on tenants to renew early into a lease period has persisted. Tenants have reported that landlords use loopholes in the ordinance to apply pressure to tenants. (Students Report Landlords Finding Loopholes in the Early Leasing Ordinance, https://www.michigandaily.com/news/ann-arbor/students-report-landlords-finding-loopholes-in-the-early-leasing-ordinance/; Ann Arbor Landlords Finding Ways Around New Renter Rights Law, Some Argue, https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2021/11/ann-arbor-landlords-finding-ways-around-new-renter-rights-law-some-argue.html.
The Renters' Commission and City staff continue to receive numerous complaints regarding landlords pressuring tenants to renew leases soon into the beginning of a lease.
The attached proposed ordinance amendment will address the continued pressure on tenants to renew early into a lease period. The proposed ordinance amendment also streamlines the early leasing and right to renew ordinances into one code section to eliminate conflict and duplication.
In particular, the prop...
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