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Amendment to allow lease bifurcation for domestic violence victims cleared in straw poll
Summary
Representative Krasnow's amendment to H.772 would require landlords to allow lease bifurcation so a tenant who is a victim of domestic abuse can remain while an abuser may be evicted; it adds definitions, an anti-retaliation provision for contacting law enforcement, a 90-day relocation window and sets an "actual and imminent threat" threshold for removing an abuser. The committee straw-polled the amendment favorable, 10-1-0.
The House Committee on General and Housing on March 29 took up an amendment from Representative Krasnow that would add statutory protections for tenants who are victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking when both parties are on a lease.
Krasnow's amendment adds definitions (including "domestic abuse" and "household member"), bars landlord retaliation for tenants who contact law enforcement about domestic abuse, and creates an explicit statutory rule that a landlord shall not terminate a rental agreement because a tenant is the victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking. A central feature of the amendment is lease bifurcation: a landlord must allow a tenant to split (bifurcate) a joint lease so the alleged abuser can be removed while the victim may remain.
Speaking in support, Ian, who identified himself as a representative serving on House Judiciary, said the change "kind of rectifies that and adds in some pretty important protections for victims of domestic violence." He explained the amendment pulls several definitions from existing law and federal sources, noting it references the federal Violence Against Women Act for the "actual and imminent threat" language.
The amendment requires a higher threshold to remove the accused tenant: the abuser may be evicted only if the conduct poses an "actual and imminent threat" to other tenants and no other action could reduce the threat. The measure also directs that if a protected tenant cannot afford rent after bifurcation, the landlord must provide a reasonable opportunity to locate additional tenants or otherwise find housing, defined as a minimum 90 days.
Committee members asked practical questions about how domestic violence is determined and how protections apply when the perpetrator is related to the landlord or when the victim is the leaseholder. Counsel clarified the section does not require a police report; if "the facts are sufficient to demonstrate that an abuse has occurred," the landlord could proceed under the statute, but documentation (police reports, orders) could provide greater certainty for both landlords and victims.
Members debated procedural and implementation details, including security-deposit implications when creating a new lease for the protected tenant and whether the tenant should be referred to as an "alleged victim" pending factfinding; Krasnow said intent is to protect survivors and victims and asked staff to refine drafting where needed.
The committee conducted a straw poll on the Krasnow amendment; the chair reported the result as 10 in favor, 1 opposed and 0 abstentions.
Why it matters: the amendment attempts to address a frequent problem in landlord'tenant law — how to keep a victim from being uprooted when an abuser is a co-tenant — by giving landlords a statutory pathway to remove an abuser without evicting the victim. Implementation details and thresholds could determine how often the mechanism is used and who bears relocation costs.
Next steps: committee staff will finalize the amendment text and drafting details for future consideration; the committee moved on after the straw poll.
