Nearly 30 people asked the College Park City Council on Nov. 12 to prevent landlords from pressuring tenants to renew leases before they have lived in their units for six months.
Most of the speakers were student tenants of downtown high-rise apartment buildings. About 10 landlords and a few students testified that the early-lease practice is acceptable.
“We’ve just moved in for the semester and we already have to figure out next year,” said University of Maryland student Nisha Kumar, who lives in the University View apartments on Route 1 and is considering moving abroad for a semester next year. “Who’s going to take my spot? … Will I have to pay over $1,000 a month for a place I’m not even living in?”
Speakers said they support a proposed city ordinance that would prohibit landlords from making renewal offers earlier than 180 days into the start of a lease. Its main goal is to protect students from pressure to sign what some called “predatory” lease-renewal agreements far in advance.
Scott Tebbe, a student who lived at The Varsity on Route 1 last school year, said he was asked to re-sign his lease less than a month after moving in.
“This was a decision I wasn’t ready to make, and I felt trapped,” Tebbe said. “Either continue living in The Varsity with all these [maintenance] problems or scramble to find a different housing space and make a decision I was uninformed about.”
Kumar said the pressure is stressful for students who don’t yet know their living plans — especially those considering studying abroad. On top of the pressure, she said her landlords were unhelpful when she and her roommates tried to negotiate sub-leasing or a lease shorter than a year.
Landlords also spoke at the hearing. Some urged the council to limit the ordinance to high-rises and to exempt single-family home rentals.
Richard Biffle, a landlord of 23 years who spoke against the ordinance, said some of his tenants prefer to renew early because students have become savvy about renting in a competitive housing market.
“They know that the way to get the best house, in the best location, for the best price is to lease early,” Biffle said. “I don’t see any reason to prohibit the early birds from getting their choice of nests.”
Some speakers also opposed a “good cause” requirement in the ordinance that would restrict a landlord’s right to refuse to renew leases for tenants perceived as problematic.
Lisa Miller, president of the Prince George’s Property Owners Association, said making landlords wait 180 days to offer lease renewals is workable, but opposed the “good cause” requirement.
“We would be totally eliminated of any control of not renting to someone that your neighbor doesn’t want to live next to,” Miller said. “It totally erases the years of good work.”
The UMD student liaisons to the council, Nick DiSpirito and Amira Abujuma, helped champion the proposed ordinance.
DiSpirito said he is proud of the students who testified at the meeting and is looking forward to continuing discussions.
“I’ve never been so proud of my university and my fellow students,” DiSpirito said.
The council took no action on the ordinance after the public hearing, which lasted more than an hour. The ordinance is an action item on the agenda for the Dec. 2 council meeting.