Multiple student leaders are encouraging the approval of a Tenant Bill of Rights, a set of student-friendly leasing policies for campus-area tenants and landlords.
ASM Legislative Affairs Committee Intern Ryan Prestil outlined voluntary provisions Monday for the document which would ask landlords to enforce stricter requirements upon themselves compared to current city ordinances, including rules about maintenance, cleaning and discrimination, as well as notice periods for showing apartments to future tenants.
Associated Students of Madison Student Council will vote on the plan at a meeting April 3.
If the legislation is passed, ASM will promote the landlords who add the policies to their leases by sending out campus-wide emails listing approved companies and allowing them to use ASM’s stamp of approval on their advertisements.
“The bigger landlords have the capacity to promote themselves really well around campus,” Prestil said. “But for smaller landlords, they might not have the resources to send out a campus-wide email so we could do that for them and say ‘landlord XYZ has signed onto this.’”
Prestil also said he anticipates hesitation from landlords who may see the Tenant Bill of Rights as a way for ASM to tell them how to run their business.
Even so, Prestil said, “[The bill of rights] is trying to promote cooperation, not tell you how to do your job.”
If ASM supports the legislation, Prestil plans to spend the rest of spring semester finding landlords to agree to the policies and summer working “around whatever red tape they need to do for that.”
