By Benny L. Kass April 16  Effective June 12, if you are a landlord in a community association in Montgomery County and are delinquent in your association assessments, you may not be able to rent out the apartment until you pay up.  And effective July 3, landlords in the District must provide potential residential renters a tenant bill of rights.  In Montgomery County, you cannot rent out a house or a condominium unit without obtaining a rental license. The Montgomery County Council recently approved legislation authorizing the jurisdiction to deny or revoke the licenses of landlords who are not current in their payments to the community association where the property is located.  Landlords must certify that they are current on their assessments. If they are not, the association can file a complaint against them. The association must show proof — a lien or unsatisfied judgment — of the delinquency.  What are the consequences of losing a license? First, the landlord can be fined up to $500 per day. And equally significant, an unlicensed landlord cannot sue his tenant for nonpayment of rent.  Condominium associations desperately need this law. All too often, landlords collect rent but fail to pay the condo assessments. Association fees are based on the annual budget prepared and adopted by the board of directors. The board projects and estimates the annual income, but if many owners fail to pay their share, the association goes into the red and has to sacrifice services to all owners.  Many associations require landlords and tenants to sign an addendum to the rental lease. This document gives the association the power to take legal action against the tenant if there are violations of the legal documents. The addendum also requires the tenant to pay the rent to the association instead of to the landlord if the tenant is formally notified that the landlord is in arrears.  But not all associations have enacted such a lease addendum, and in many cases, landlords just ignore the matter and collect their rent. This new law will greatly assist associations in Montgomery County.  In the District, before leaving office, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) signed into law the Tenant Bill of Rights Amendment of 2014. This law directed the D.C. Office of Tenant Advocate to prepare and publish a bill of rights.  As of July 3, landlords renting out a house, condominium or cooperative apartment must provide prospective tenants with a copy of the bill of rights when they submit an application, and it must be signed as received.  This document, according to the D.C. Tenant Advocate office, “is not exhaustive and is intended to provide tenants with an overview of the basic rights of tenancy in the District.” Areas covered include:  • Leases are not mandatory.  • Security deposits cannot exceed one month’s rent.  • Landlords must provide tenants with written receipts unless renters pay with personal checks.  • Renters have a right to form a tenant association, and the landlord cannot interfere.  • Evictions can be done only through a judge in the D.C. Superior Court; changing the locks or cutting off a tenant’s utilities are not permitted.  When the proposal was pending before the D.C. Council, the real estate industry expressed concerns that this could increase costs to tenants, but the Council adopted it unanimously.  Benny L. Kass is a Washington and Maryland lawyer. This column is not legal advice and should not be acted upon without obtaining legal counsel. For a free copy of the booklet “A Guide to Settlement on Your New Home,” send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Benny L. Kass, 1050 17th St. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, D.C. 20036.
HOUSING COUNSEL | New laws in the suburban Maryland jurisdiction and the District are aimed at holding people who rent out their properties more accountable.