The Landlord and Tenant Issues Subcommittee met Thursday seeking to reshape an ordinance that restricts apartment showing and lease renewal dates in order to relieve tensions between landlords and tenants.
The current city ordinance prohibits landlords from showing a tenant's apartment or asking them to renew their lease before more than one-third of the current lease has lapsed, but it does not prohibit landlords from leasing their apartment to a new tenant before that date.
So tenants who wish to renew their current lease may find that their apartment has been rented, even before one-third of their lease has lapsed.
\It doesn't really matter for small flats, but it does matter in sort of big-box apartment buildings where every model looks the same and if they have a vacant one they can show it,"" said Ald. Austin King, District 8.
Members of the subcommittee suggested it would be better to allow landlords to show apartments after one-fourth of the current lease has expired rather than one-third. In exchange, the ordinance would prohibit landlords from renting a tenant's apartment to a new tenant until that date.
So, for a lease that begins August 15, a landlord could begin showing a tenant's apartment November 15 rather than December 15. In addition, tenants could attempt to negotiate with the landlord to extend that date even further into the lease.
The compromise should satisfy all of those concerned, Tim Wadlington of Steve Brown Apartments said.
""It solves the problem for the people in the 600 block of Langdon Street that want to really begin early. The rest of the city doesn't care less about this ordinance.""
But non-students that choose to live downtown also care very much about this ordinance, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.
""They are, by virtue, slaves to the academic calendar. And it's already bad enough that they're on the August to August lease,"" Verveer said. ""Getting a notice from your landlord saying you have to let us know if you want to renew right after the new year; it just doesn't make sense.""
