Orange County could soon become the fifth local government in Florida to adopt a “Tenant Bill of Rights,” the latest effort by the county commission to help beleaguered renters as housing costs continue to rise and evictions surge throughout Central Florida.
The board, which voted 4-3 last month to put a rent-cap ordinance on the Nov. 8 ballot, is set Tuesday to hear a staff presentation on creating rules that add tenant protections and define duties of a taxpayer-funded Office of Tenant Services to assist renters.
According to the commission agenda, county staff sought input from Florida Rising, a tenant advocacy group, and the Florida Apartment Association, a landlord group whose members own 80% of the estimated 230,000 residential rental units in Orange County.
Miami-Dade County commissioners adopted a set of rules in May that make it harder for landlords to screen tenant applications for past evictions, easier for tenants to bill landlords for repairs and protect tenants who file complaints from retaliation.
Miami-Dade’s “Bill of Rights” was among those reviewed by county staff directed to research a possible ordinance.
Hillsborough County and the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg also have enacted bills of rights for tenants.
Letitia Harmon, policy and research director for Florida Rising, said the county’s ordinance ought to create a landlord registry.
“If you’re a massage therapist, you need a license. If you’re a truck driver, you need a specific kind of professional license,” she said. “We’re asking that landlords actually register with the county and obtain a license from the county in order to be able to rent property.”
She said the registry would promote landlord accountability.
“This would reinforce that ‘Here are the good landlords that people should feel very secure renting from,’ but there’s an actual accountability mechanism for the landlords who are taking advantage of renters or full-on victimizing them in some cases,” Harmon said.
Lee Steinhauer, speaking for the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando, said many proposed rules duplicate state law.
“The organization doesn’t think a lot of what’s being proposed is necessary,” he said.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
