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'An unequal playing field' | A look at proposed bills aiming to protect tenants' rights in 2023

On the docket for the 2023 lawmaking session are several tenants' rights bills all working to level the playing field for Virginia renters.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — It’s one topic where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle can find common ground in.

On the docket for the 2023 lawmaking session are several tenants' rights bills all working to level the playing field for Virginia renters. 

"Even a lot of Republicans made this a priority. Everyone understood, particularly before there were COVID-19 vaccines, that if you got evicted, it wasn't just an uncomfortable situation. It became a matter of life and death," Christie Marra said, the director of Housing Advocacy for the Virginia Poverty Law Center (VPLC.)

Marra told 13News Now the VPLC is publicly backing roughly one dozen of these bills in the General Assembly, with the bill’s goals ranging from issues of rent payments to eviction policies.

“It's long been true that landlords have more power than tenants. I think that is true before you pass a single law, the nature of the landlord and tenant relationship gives landlords the upper hand," she said. 

Here are some of the tenants' rights bills backed by VPLC:

HB 1532- Provides that any locality may by ordinance adopt rent stabilization provisions.  

HB 1651- Provides that a landlord shall not obtain a consumer report or conduct any other investigation into the background or qualifications of a rental applicant without first establishing a written rental admission policy that is available to the public and providing the applicant with either a written or an electronic copy of such policy.  

HB 1652- Increases from five days to 14 days the mandatory waiting period after a landlord serves written notice on a tenant notifying the tenant of his nonpayment of rent and of the landlord's intention to terminate the rental agreement if rent is not paid before the landlord may pursue remedies for termination of the rental agreement.

HB 1732- Requires a landlord who owns more than four rental dwelling units or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four rental dwelling units, before terminating a rental agreement due to nonpayment of rent if the exact amount of rent owed is less than or equal to one month's rent plus any late charges contracted for in the rental agreement or as provided by law, to serve upon such tenant a written notice informing the tenant of the exact amount due and owed and offer the tenant a payment plan under which the tenant must pay the exact amount due and owed in equal monthly installments over a period of six months.

HB1702- Requires a landlord who owns more than four rental dwelling units or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four rental dwelling units, whether individually or through a business entity, in the Commonwealth, to, in the case of any rental agreement that contains an option to renew or an automatic renewal provision, provide written notice to the tenant notifying the tenant of any increase in rent during the subsequent rental agreement term no less than 90 days prior to the end of the current rental agreement term. 

SB 941- Decreases from two months' periodic rent to one month's periodic rent the maximum amount a landlord may collect from a tenant for a security deposit, damage insurance premium, or a combination of both.  

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