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DeKalb discusses tenant-protection bill and water-bill charge-back option
Summary
The committee reviewed a tenant-protection item (House Bill 687) to require landlords to disclose fees and discussed a water-bill leak proposal to allow tenants to have bills forgiven and recover costs from landlords — staff said statutory changes may be needed to charge owners.
DeKalb County commissioners reviewed a tenant-protection measure that would require property owners to disclose fees in advertisements and lease agreements and discussed related proposals to allow the county to forgive tenant water bills for leaks and charge owners who fail to repair.
Dan Baskerville explained the disclosure proposal (House Bill 687) and said it had been introduced last session by Representative Amari Crawford but did not receive action. On water billing, legal staff said the county can administratively write off portions of a bill but would likely need statutory authority to pursue owners when the bill is in a tenant's name. "The ability to write off that portion or not charge the tenant for that portion is certainly within our control," Mr. Welch said, "but the ability to go after the owner for failing to institute the fix is not, as I understand it, currently within our control."
Commissioners asked staff to analyze whether internal policies, lien authority or account-holder rules could be used short-term and asked finance and utilities for data on how often tenant bills rise because of leaks and landlords do not repair properties. Several commissioners recommended gathering data and stakeholder positions (for example, apartment associations) before advancing legislation.
Staff will return with legal analysis, counts of incidents and recommended language to guide whether the county advances a statutory ask or adjusts internal billing and enforcement procedures.
