House Appropriations Committee approves H772 landlord-tenant bill after debate on eviction rules

The House Appropriations Committee on March 20 approved H772, a landlord-tenant bill, as amended by House General and Housing, House Judiciary and the Appropriations Committee. The final committee tally was 9 yes, 2 no and 0 abstentions.

Cameron Wood of the Office of Legislative Council summarized the changes the judiciary committee recommended, saying the amendment restores judicial discretion to reduce court-ordered rent deposits in some cases and removes a strict rule requiring full payment into court. He explained the amendment "gives the court that discretionary authority" to order partial payments or reductions when appropriate.

The amendment also removed a requirement that parties file an affidavit outlining terms when they reach an agreement, and it deleted proposed confidentiality changes for ejectment records. Wood said the amendment aligns the new trespass provisions with current law by striking proposed appeal rights that did not exist in the existing trespass statute.

Representative Tom spoke at length opposing both the judiciary amendment and the bill as a whole, arguing the changes would shorten eviction timelines, put tenants at a disadvantage and risk increasing homelessness. "I'm a hard no," he said, adding that landlords typically have attorneys while tenants do not and that the bill "changes the power structure" in eviction proceedings.

Supporters of the amendments argued the judiciary language preserves the court's ability to tailor orders while the Appropriations amendment added contingency language to make several program duties dependent on available funding. The Appropriations amendment (draft 1.1) made implementation of a tenant credit-reporting program in the treasurer's office and tenant/landlord training contingent on appropriations and removed appropriation language that would have required nonstate entities to act without funding.

The committee first approved the Appropriations amendment by roll call and then took a straw poll on the judiciary amendment before the final vote on the bill as amended. The committee recorded the final vote as 9-2-0 in favor of advancing H772.

The committee did not adopt safeguards that Representative Tom said were needed to preserve tenant representation and mitigate unintended homelessness risk; Tom warned the bill "doesn't discern" between cases that merit expedited ejectment and those that do not. The transcript records his opposition and the committee vote but does not include a floor-level debate or post-vote legislative next steps.

The committee will return to budget and language work with JFO staff and counsel before further floor or crossover consideration.