 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(December 2023) |
A tenants union, also known as a tenants association, is a group of tenants that collectively organize to improve the conditions of their housing and mutually educate about their rights as renters. [1] [2] Groups may also lobby local officials to change housing policies or address homelessness.
Usually, the process starts with a group of tenants creating a written list of demands. One tenant with legitimate complaints about building safety, high rent, maintenance issues, landlord harassment, and other harmful practices is easy to ignore. An organized group of tenants with a list of specific demands is more likely to get a landlord negotiating. No "official" recognition is required in order for a tenant union to be legitimate and impactful.
The goal of a tenants union is to empower people to fight for housing as a human right through tenant-run or community-controlled housing, or reforms such as rent control. [1] [3]
Rent contracts are negotiated between landlord and tenant organizations. Tenants who cannot afford negotiated rents receive housing allowances. [4] Tenants are represented in court by consumer associations. [5] Mediation is a first step in addressing substandard housing before the association brings legal action. [6] Tenant associations debated with other stakeholders in the National Housing Council regarding data sharing on energy and housing benefits paid to the private sector. [7]
In the United States, tenant unions in the state of New York have pushed for the passage of just-cause eviction laws following the end of COVID-19 eviction moratoriums. Just-cause could include non-payment, lease violations, nuisance cases, or if a landlord wants to move into the property. [8]
Tenants unions in the US have also helped halt evictions and push for tenant bills of rights and right to counsel in Kansas City, Missouri; Tempe, Arizona; St. Petersburg, Florida; and other cities. [9] [10] [11]
United States of America federal law prohibits housing discrimination based on race, gender, religion and other protected identity categories, but it doesn't explicitly protect tenants' right to organize collectively. [12]
In a 2018 survey of state law, two states & D.C were found to have substantial protections for tenant unions and tenant union organizing (Category 1 states listed below); twenty-nine other states protected tenant union organizing (Category 2 states listed below); and nineteen states had no laws protecting tenant associations or tenant association organizing (Category 3 states below). [13]
| State | Category | Protections [14] |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 2 | Uniform and Residential Landlord Tenant Act prohibits retaliation for organizing or being involved with a tenants union. |
| Alaska | 2 | Uniform and Residential Landlord Tenant Act prohibits retaliation for organizing or being involved with a tenants union. |
| Arizona | 2 | Uniform and Residential Landlord Tenant Act prohibits retaliation for organizing or being involved with a tenants union. Tenants at mobile home and residential vehicle parks have additional rights. |
| Arkansas | 3 | No laws found. |
| California | 1 | Substantial protections for tenant union organizing. In some circumstances, tenant associations have substantive rights, such as an opportunity to purchase some regulated housing developments or the right to raise some health and safety claims. |
| Colorado | 2 | Landlords may not retaliate against tenants for making complaints to the landlord or to governmental entities. |
| Connecticut | 2 | Landlords may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being involved with a tenants union. Tenant unions often have an opportunity to purchase buildings during a conversion to a condominium. Tenant associations have additional rights in state housing projects and in mobile home parks. |
| Delaware | 2 | Landlords may not retaliate against tenants who organized or are officers in a tenants’ organization. Tenant associations in manufactured home communities have additional rights. |
| District of Columbia | 1 | Tenants have the right to organize, to meet and confer through representatives of their own choosing with the owner, and to engage in concerted activities for mutual aid and protections. Tenant organizers often have the right to canvass in multifamily housing accommodations. Owners may not interfere with tenants' self-organizational activities. Under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, tenants associations often have an opportunity to purchase rental buildings when the owner wishes to sell them. |
| Florida | 2 | Landlords may not retaliate against tenants for organizing, encouraging or participating in a tenant organization. Tenants of mobile home parks have additional rights. |
| Georgia | 3 | No laws found. |
| Idaho | 3 | No general tenant protection found. Tenants of floating home marinas have the right to form a tenant association. Tenants of mobile and manufactured home parks have additional rights. |
| Illinois | 3 | No general tenant protection found. Tenants in assisted housing developments receiving governmental funding have additional rights. |
| Indiana | 3 | No general tenant protection found. |
| Iowa | 2 | Landlords may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or becoming a member of a tenants union. |
| Kansas | 2 | Landlords may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or becoming a member of a tenants’ union. |
| Louisiana | 3 | No laws found. |
| Maine | 2 | Tenants cannot be evicted if the eviction action was brought in retaliation for tenant union organizing. |
| Maryland | 2 | Landlords cannot include in rental agreements any provisions permitting eviction based on tenant union organizing. In Montgomery County, MD, landlords cannot retaliate against tenants for membership in a tenants organization. Mobile home park tenants have additional rights. |
| Massachusetts | 2 | In an eviction process, a tenant may raise a defense that the action was brought in retaliation for organizing or joining a tenants union. Any person who retaliates against a tenant for their tenant union activities is liable for damages. Tenants of manufactured home parks and public housing developments have additional rights. |
| Michigan | 2 | Tenants may not be evicted action if the eviction was based on retaliation against a tenant for tenant union activities. Tenants of public and affordable housing developments have additional rights. |
| Minnesota | 2 | Housing-related neighborhood organizations may bring legal actions for violations of landlord-tenant law on behalf of tenants. They may also request an inspection of facilities. Landlords may not retaliate against tenants for filing complaints. Tenants in manufactured home parks have additional rights. |
| Mississippi | 3 | No laws found. |
| Missouri | 3 | No laws found. |
| Montana | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. Tenants of mobile home parks have additional rights. |
| Nebraska | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. |
| Nevada | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. |
| New Hampshire | 2 | In eviction proceedings, tenants may raise a defense that the eviction is retaliation for tenant union activity. Tenants of mobile and manufactured home parks have additional rights. |
| New Jersey | 2 | Landlords may not evict tenants for their membership or involvement in any lawful organization. Landlords may not evict tenants for refusing to comply with terms of tenancy which the landlord altered to retaliate for tenant organization activity. |
| New Mexico | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. |
| New York | 1 | Landlords may not interfere with the right of tenants to form, join or participate in tenant organization, and may not punish, harass, or retaliate against tenants for exercising these rights. Tenant unions have the right to meet on the premises in any common use area without having to pay a fee. Limited-profit housing companies must adopt regulations recognizing tenant associations. Tenants in those properties have additional rights. Tenant associations providing services have some additional rights. |
| North Carolina | 3 | No laws found. |
| North Dakota | 3 | No laws found. |
| Ohio | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing with each other for the purpose of dealing collectively with the landlord. Low-income housing programs may provide grants to tenant associations. |
| Oregon | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. Tenants in manufactured home and floating home parks have additional rights. |
| Pennsylvania | 2 | Landlords may not terminate or decline to renew a lease due to a tenant union organizing or membership. |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | No laws found. |
| Rhode Island | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. Tenants in mobile home parks and federally insured or assisted housing have some additional rights. |
| South Carolina | 3 | No laws found. |
| South Dakota | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. |
| Tennessee | 3 | No laws found. |
| Texas | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. Tenant organizations in low-income housing have additional rights. |
| Utah | 3 | No general tenant protections found. Residents of mobile home parks have additional rights. |
| Vermont | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. |
| Virginia | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. |
| Washington | 3 | No laws found. |
| West Virginia | 3 | No general tenant protections found. Tenants in house trailers, mobile homes, manufactured homes, and modular homes are protected from eviction for tenant union organizing or membership. |
| Wisconsin | 2 | Landlord may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or being a member of tenant unions. |
| Wyoming | 3 | No laws found. |
| Oklahoma | 3 | No laws found. |
| Kentucky | 2 | Landlords may not retaliate against tenants for organizing or becoming a member of a tenants’ union. Provides some services to tenants living in low incoming housing, including advisory services for creating tenant organizations to “which will assume a meaningful and responsible role in the planning and carrying out of housing affairs.” |
| Hawaii | 3 | Tenant organizations have the right to sue in the organization’s name to abate nuisance. Resident advisory boards are established for public housing projects. |
In the United States, rent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the rent of residential housing to function as a price ceiling. More loosely, "rent control" describes several types of price control:
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant. When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner. The term landlady may be used for the female owners. The manager of a pub in the United Kingdom, strictly speaking a licensed victualler, is referred to as the landlord/landlady. In political economy it refers to the owner of natural resources alone from which an economic rent, a form of passive income, is the income received.
Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee.
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user to pay the owner for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial or business equipment are also leased. In essence, a lease agreement is a contract between two parties: the lessor and the lessee. The lessor is the legal owner of the asset, while the lessee obtains the right to use the asset in return for regular rental payments. The lessee also agrees to abide by various conditions regarding their use of the property or equipment. For example, a person leasing a car may agree to the condition that the car will only be used for personal use.
A rent strike, sometimes known as a tenants strike or a renters strike, is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants agree to collectively withhold paying some or all of their rent to their landlords en masse until demands are met. This can be a useful tactic of final resort for use against intransigent landlords, but can carry risks for the tenants, such as eviction, lowered credit scores, and legal consequences.
City Life/Vida Urbana commonly known as "City Life," is a social justice group in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1973, a group of local residents and activists with roots in the civil rights, feminist and anti-Vietnam War movements founded the Jamaica Plain Tenants Action Group, now City Life/Vida Urbana. Since 2008, City Life has focused on preventing evictions of both former owners and renters resulting from a rise in foreclosures. City Life/Vida Urbana is currently based in Jamaica Plain, with satellite memberships in East Boston, Brockton, Lynn, Quincy, and Worcester.
The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) is a grassroots, non-profit community organization. CES works in the greater Los Angeles area to influence policy makers to improve the lives of low and moderate income people.
Rent regulation is a system of laws for the rental market of dwellings, with controversial effects on affordability of housing and tenancies. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves:
The Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act ("Costa–Hawkins") is a California state law enacted in 1995, placing limits on municipal rent control ordinances. Costa–Hawkins preempts the field in two major ways. First, it prohibits cities from establishing rent control over certain kinds of residential units, such as single-family dwellings, condominiums, and newly constructed apartment units. Second, it prohibits "vacancy control", also called "strict" rent control. The legislation was sponsored by Democratic Senator Jim Costa and Republican assembly member Phil Hawkins.
Arizona Tenants Advocates (ATA) is a non-profit renters' union and tenants' rights organization located in Tempe, Arizona. It was founded in 2001 by Kenneth A. Volk, a prominent Arizona tenants' rights advocate.
The Crown Heights Tenant Union (CHTU) is a tenants union created in October 2013 to unify old and new tenants against the gentrification of the neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. The CHTU has pushed for local collective bargaining agreements between tenants and landlords to be written into the deeds of buildings that would regulate rent increases and codify repair and renovation standards. They also assist individual tenants, educating them on their rights and how to enforce them, lobby in Albany for better rent laws, and participate in direct action, targeting predatory equity real-estate companies they believe to be involved in illegal evictions and harassment tactics.
Eviction in the United States refers to the pattern of tenant removal by landlords in the United States. In an eviction process, landlords forcibly remove tenants from their place of residence and reclaim the property. Landlords may decide to evict tenants who have failed to pay rent, violated lease terms, or possess an expired lease. Landlords may also choose not to renew a tenant's lease, however, this does not constitute an eviction. In the United States, eviction procedures, landlord rights, and tenant protections vary by state and locality. Historically, the United States has seen changes in domestic eviction rates during periods of major socio-political and economic turmoil—including the Great Depression, the 2008 Recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic. High eviction rates are driven by affordable housing shortages and rising housing costs. Across the United States, low-income and disadvantaged neighborhoods have disproportionately higher eviction rates. Certain demographics—including low income renters, Black and Hispanic renters, women, and people with children—are also at a greater risk of eviction. Additionally, eviction filings remain on renters' public records. This can make it more difficult for renters to access future housing, since most landlords will not rent to a tenant with a history of eviction. Eviction and housing instability are also linked to many negative health and life outcomes, including homelessness, poverty, and poor mental and physical health.
Margot Black is an American tenant rights organizer, activist, grass-roots lobbyist and former political candidate. She helped found and was co-chair of Portland Tenants United, Portland's metro-wide tenant union focused on tenants' rights to secure, safe, affordable and equitable housing, tenant-union organizing, eviction prevention, and providing emergency assistance for renters navigating housing law.
Cancel rent is a slogan and tenant rights movement in the United States, which advocates for the cancellation of rental payments and suspension of mortgage payments during the coronavirus pandemic. Activists and organizations have also presented other demands, which include the cancellation of housing-related expenses, cancellation of late fees for housing payments, the establishment of a landlord hardship fund, an increase in emergency housing, and an eviction moratorium. The movement was triggered by the economic impact of the pandemic, in which mass business closures and employee layoffs resulted in financial insecurity for many Americans. Tenants faced a range of issues, including the inability to pay rent, harassment or intimidation from landlords, and potential eviction. This situation put tenants at risk of damaged credit ratings, food insecurity, and homelessness. Consequently, activists, tenants rights organizations, and some politicians have called for the cancellation of rent.
The Renters and Housing Union (RAHU) is a syndicalist tenants union based in Australia. RAHU organises for safe and secure housing through self-advocacy, education, and eviction defence. This includes supporting tenants through processes like evictions and bond recovery, with the union recouping $12,000 in members' bond money in a year.
The Kansas City Tenants Union, also known as KC Tenants, is a non-profit tenant's union in Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded in 2019 by Tiana Caldwell and Tara Raghuveer.
Tenant right to counsel (TRTC) guarantees that eligible tenants will be provided legal representation, especially when tenants face eviction. Without a right to counsel, tenants are represented by lawyers around 3% of the time on average, whereas landlords have legal representation in 84% of cases. TRTC is viewed as a form of homelessness prevention, but eviction potentially implicates a number of other basic human needs, such as child custody, education, employment, and physical/mental health. Generally, tenant right to counsel programs are successful, resulting in lower eviction rates and more time, reduced rent arrears, and a sealed eviction record for tenants for those who cannot or do not want to stay in their homes.
Bozeman Tenants United is a tenant's union based in Bozeman, Montana. According to the Tenant Union Federation, which Bozeman Tenants United cofounded, the union has over 200 members and 130 pay union dues. Its founders are organizers who were involved in Bozeman United for Racial Justice.
Since October 1, 2024, members of the Kansas City Tenants Union in the cities of Kansas City, Missouri and Independence, Missouri began a rent strike after voted approval and failed negotiations with their landlords and Fannie Mae. Tenants of Independence Towers and Quality Hill Towers, two apartment complexes involved with the dispute, have complained about poor living conditions, with maintenance reports going unaddressed. This is the first rent strike in the area since 1980, and the first ever targeting the federal government of the United States.
The Tenant Union Federation (TUF) is a national federation of tenants' unions in the United States, describing itself as a "union of unions".
