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Committee advances tenant‑protection bill with lease and safety‑plan requirements, recommends it to full council 2–0
Summary
The Planning, Housing and Parks Committee recommended Bill 7‑24 to full council with amendments requiring clearer lease disclosures (including leasing-office hours and elevator outage notices), a three‑year safety‑plan renewal, and DPS oversight of plan approvals; the committee voted 2–0 to forward the amended bill.
The Montgomery County Planning, Housing and Parks Committee on June 27 recommended sending Bill 7‑24 — landlord–tenant relations: tenant protection and notification — to the full council with a package of clarifying amendments.
Vice President Stewart, the bill sponsor, said resident input following a fire at the Arrive and a power outage at The Grand shaped the measure. "Their lived experiences were the impetus of this bill," Stewart said, crediting families who urged changes to safety and notification requirements.
Council staff summarized the bill’s key provisions: expanded lease disclosures (including whether a building has an automatic sprinkler system and whether renters insurance is required by the lease), a required emergency safety plan included in the lease, landlord notifications for building‑wide outages or maintenance, and a requirement that a representative be available at all times with 24‑hour access to adjust air‑conditioning temperature controls.
Staff proposed clarifying amendments that the committee accepted in principle. The committee agreed to move approval authority for emergency safety plans from the Department of Housing and Community Affairs to the Department of Permitting Services (DPS), require safety plans to be renewed every three years, and allow landlords to resubmit amended plans if initially denied. Staff also said landlords must make safety plans available to county fire and rescue or other emergency response personnel on request.
On lease disclosure mechanics, Councilmember Katz pressed for an explicit acknowledgment so tenants (or a lease summary) show they saw key statements. Katz’s amendment — requiring a specific acknowledgement of the lease summary or lease provision — was accepted by the committee without objection.
Vice President Stewart’s sponsor amendments to (1) require leasing‑office hours to be included in lease documents and (2) add elevators to the list of essential services requiring advance notice were accepted. Stewart also described a proposed requirement that property owners report serious crimes; the committee did not adopt that element on this day, agreeing it required further work with incoming police and fire chiefs to resolve jurisdictional and victims‑privacy issues.
Councilmember Mink proposed an addendum to emergency safety plans for properties with frequent fire‑related service calls; the draft threshold discussed was 10 or more calls for service in 12 months. Mink said the measure would target buildings that repeatedly draw significant fire‑rescue resources or condition residents to ignore alarms. Staff and members asked for data on how many buildings meet various thresholds before finalizing enforcement mechanics.
When the committee put the amended bill to a recommendation vote, Chair Friedson announced the tally as 2 to 0 in favor, and the committee forwarded Bill 7‑24, as amended, to the full council. Chair Friedson said staff will provide the final, consolidated language indicating which provisions will live in Chapter 22 (permitting/plan authority) and which will be reflected in Chapter 29 (lease disclosures). The committee did not take a final vote on the crime‑reporting language and will revisit it after further stakeholder consultation.
The committee’s next scheduled meeting will continue the master‑plan discussion on other neighborhoods in the plan area.
