Editorial:

House should pass tenant protection bills

Published March 16, 2010

The Missouri House has two bills affecting tenants and landlords, and both bills deal with issues commonly faced by students.

We urge Speaker of the House Ron Richard to put the bills through committees to be discussed because they will greatly benefit first-time renters.

Many MU students have never rented a property before and according to Director of Student Legal Services Steve Concannon, many get taken advantage of by their landlords. Concannon said about 40 percent of students he sees come to him because they had problems getting their security deposits back. Clearly this is a big problem in Columbia.

House Bill 2041 would require landlords to supply tenants with copies of utility bills for the previous 12 months or a written approximation of the monthly utility bills for the 12 months prior to the tenant's lease.

Although tenants can get this information from the city, many are unaware of this. It is important renters know this information is out there. It is also good for landlords to know how expensive utility bills are, even if tenants pay directly to utility companies.

If a landlord's house or apartment is not properly weatherized, it could cause unreasonably high utility bills that are easy to fix. If bills are high, landlords could possibly make changes to a property or at least be upfront with tenants. If these costs are low, they could be a selling point for landlords. So, this has the potential to be a win-win situation.

House Bill 2248 deals with security deposits. It prohibits landlords from demanding deposits more than the sum of two months' rent or keeping the deposit more than 30 days after the termination date, which the current law states. What would change is that landlords would have to supply a tenant with an itemized list of any expenses taken from the deposit.

For example, if a landlord has to replace a door, the receipt for the door and labor to repair it will be put on an itemized list of money to be taken from the security deposit.

This law would also require them to place the money in an account separate from their own.

Landlords should also strive to be upfront with fees for repairs and tenant responsibilities. If, for instance, certain repairs are the tenant's responsibility, it needs to be said upfront rather than a tenant being charged after the fact.

The Associated Students of the University of Missouri and Concannon support this legislation, because students at MU so frequently face landlord problems. We support this bill for the same reason. However, we think ASUM and SLS should do more to raise student awareness of their rights as renters to try to prevent these issues from ever happening.

Find a way to reach students and let them know what resources are available. Let them know what landlords cannot do and what they need to ask before renting from a landlord.