Renters Union: Fair Representation for Leasing Tenants

Anyone who has ever been in the lower income brackets has had to deal with less than satisfactory conditions in a rental property. Negligent building managers, sub-code utilities, ancient appliances, pests, loud neighbors... it's being stuck between the rock of a low income and a hard place called no representation. One tenant going up against a property manager is a losing battle and if that tenant is forced to live in low-rent housing, he or she certainly doesn't have the extra scratch to pay court fees, let alone hire a lawyer. Even if worthy disputes did make it to litigation, where would the prosecuting tenant live in the meantime? Perhaps low-income renters ought to do what low-wage workers did in the early 20th century: Organize.

There are certainly non-profit organizations in major cities that exist to represent the rights of renters, but litigation is still a very time-consuming process that doesn't lend itself to the immediate needs of troubled tenant. If I may provide an anecdote to this effect:

Two years ago I lived in an old property during a particularly harsh midwestern winter. Daytime temperatures often reached less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit and nighttime temperatures hovered around 0 degrees at best. I had no control over the thermostat in my apartment. That duty went to one of the other tenants. That tenant was explicitly told by the landlord to only turn on the heater 3-4 times a day between the hours of 7:00 AM and 6:00 PM. That, combined with the severely outdated ventilation system, resulted in apartments that rarely got warmer than 40 degrees at midday. When I approached my landlord about this problem, he refused to alter the system citing financial strain.

It is certainly illegal for a landlord to refuse to properly heat his occupied properties in the winter so as to make them reasonably livable. Had I, or any other tenant, consulted outside assistance, we wouldn't have gotten results until long after the winter had passed. In cases like that when both state law and lease terms are being violated, perhaps it would be better for all of the renters at the property to band together and formally protest said violation. One tenant can be evicted for refusing to pay rent. An entire property's worth of tenants cannot without resulting in financial disaster for the landlord.

The idea of a renters union is not without its pitfalls, but I've personally witnessed and been subject to enough unlawful inequity in rental property that I'm willing the entertain the viability of such a model. A law is no good if it is not enforced and while we renters have many laws designed to protect us, the means to put them into action are often beyond our individual capabilities.

For those who have no choice but to live under the management of those with no direct accountability, individual pressure simply does not work and the legal system is too slow and expensive. Given our constitutional right to peaceably assemble, we renters may be better off holding our landlords to their obligations under contract and law using the power of organized demonstration.