Alabama gives new protections to tenants on Jan. 1

[Guest guest]

Alabama gives new protections to tenants on Jan. 1

12/14/2006, 3:12 p.m. CT

By PHILLIP RAWLS

The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala.

http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-

25/1166131173222070.xml & storylist=alabamanews

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Starting Jan. 1, Alabama will have a law to

protect renters like Teleata Gardner of Huntsville, who couldn't get

her landlord to fix her leaking roof and clean up the black mold

caused by the moisture.

" We all got sick from the mold, " Gardner said Thursday.

In March, the Legislature passed a law that, for the first time in

Alabama, spelled out the rights of landlords and the tenants of the

500,000 rental houses and apartments throughout the state.

The law, which takes effect on New Year's Day, requires landlords to

provide safe, habitable housing, and it allows the landlords to

evict bad tenants quicker than in the past.

" We are not under any illusion this law is going to end substandard

housing in Alabama, " said Kimble Forrister, state coordinator for

Alabama Arise. But he said the new law will level the playing field

for renters, who had virtually no legal protections in the past.

Greg Masood, director of government affairs for the Alabama

Association of Realtors, said the law also helps landlords because

it pre-empts city and county ordinances and standardizes eviction

procedures that had varied from county to county.

Alabama Arise, Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and

Legal Services Alabama are distributing brochures that summarize the

new law for renters. Brochures are also available by calling (334)

832-9060 or on the Web (http://www.arisecitizens.org).

Alabama Arise, a lobbying group for the poor, worked on getting a

law passed for 13 years because Alabama was the only state without

minimal protections for renters, Forrister said.

Gardner, a 45-year-old employee of the Huntsville Rehabilitation

Center, wishes they had succeeded sooner.

In 2004, she rented a small home in Huntsville for $495 per month.

She said it had fresh paint and looked OK when she moved in with her

daughter.

But when she went to cook her first meal, she realized only one eye

on the stove worked. The roof soon began to leak, causing black mold

to grow in a closet and the bathroom. She complained to her

landlord, but she said nothing got repaired.

" I told him I wasn't going to give him any more rent until he fixed

the problems. He said he would put me up for eviction, " she said.

The landlord did just that when she refused to pay, but he didn't

show up for the court hearing.

" I went on and found me somewhere else to live, " she said in a

telephone interview.

Forrister said Alabama's old housing laws were so stacked in favor

of the landlords that renters who moved out over uninhabitable

conditions could be forced to pay the rent remaining on their leases.

Pickens, executive director of the Appleseed Center, said the

new law is in line with what most other states have done.