 Welcome to this edition of Housing Fair, Safe and Affordable. My name is Jonathan Bond, I'm the Director of Vermont Tenants and the Mobile Home Program at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. In the past, we've had shows that have covered various topics from fair housing to the connections of housing and credit as well as different types of affordable housing options that are available. Today we're going to skip that step and talk briefly about rights and responsibilities that renters have in Vermont. And we're going to call today's segment Tips for Tenants. So while we're going to talk about several different topics today, if you have specific questions about your rental concerns, I would encourage you to call our message line at 802-864-0099. We'll usually be able to return a call within 24 to 48 hours and you can ask the sort of questions that may not be answered here today. What we're going to be going over today are the basics and hopefully we'll provide an opportunity for a light bulb moment of what your tenant rights are. So it's hard for us to talk about your rights and responsibilities as a tenant without acknowledging that we have a very tight rental market. Statewide, our rental vacancies are only about 1%, meaning for every 100 homes, there's only one rental that may be available. In Burlington, those numbers are a little bit better with a few more rentals being available. But generally, it's a very tight market and provides very little choice. Along those lines, there's also, we have also a lot of older housing in Vermont. And so the types of quality of the rental unit sometimes are older and need more attention as a renter. As we move on to our rights and responsibilities as tenants, it's important to know that this is what is outlined in Vermont's laws. Renters have a specific set of rights and they have a specific set of responsibilities. And together, they hopefully will help you navigate the very complicated waters of renting in Vermont. Let's start first with our rights. So a tenant has a right to safe and decent housing. And this includes the right to reporting substandard housing should the conditions be less than ideal. We have the right as tenants to 48 hours notice before our landlord enters our unit. And they're only allowed to enter our unit with that notice between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. There are exceptions if there are emergencies or if we're inviting our landlord in to address an issue, but generally it's a 48-hour notice. While we don't have the right to negotiate our rent in most situations, we do have the right to proper notice if rent is going to increase, generally about 60 days. We also have the right for proper notice if our landlord is deciding to move away from our tenancy to terminate it. And if it should come to an eviction, we have the right to contest it in the court. And finally, we have the right to our fundable security deposit. And we're going to get to more details about that later. In conjunction with our rights, we have several responsibilities that we as tenants need to be meeting. The first is probably the most obvious. It's paying our rent on time. There is no grace period in Vermont law for paying rent. It's important when we rent a new unit to know when rent is due and what the process of paying rent to our new landlord is going to be. It's our responsibility to keep our apartment safe and clean and up to code. And generally what that means is we're not piling things in front of the doorways or windows, we're not making unsafe situations regarding fire safety, and we're keeping it generally clean, including bathrooms and kitchens. If there are problems and problems always crop up in every rental, it's important that we immediately notify our landlord of any issues. And we're responsible for our guest's behavior. And that's really important. Any rental unit, the buck stops with the tenant regarding who's coming over. So whether it's friends or family, it's knowing that we're responsible for our guest should something happen. It's our responsibility to act in a respectful manner that doesn't disturb our neighbors. And it's our neighbor's responsibility to also work with us in that way. We need to make sure we deal appropriately with the trash and recycling. And oftentimes that just means knowing how at that particular unit to do so. Whether trash is picked up weekly or whether there's a dumpster on the premise and how recycling is sorted in the community that you're living in. When it comes time for us to move on, we have the responsibility to give proper notice and we'll go over that in a little bit what proper notice is. But essentially it's advanced warning to our landlord that we're moving on. Whether it's to a new apartment due to a change of job or other life circumstance or perhaps we're buying our own home and moving out of the rental market completely. And then the final responsibility we have as tenants is to follow the terms of our lease. And this is just a reminder that any lease agreement that we sign is very important for us to make sure we understand it completely because it's a contract between a tenant and the landlord as to how the rent of that unit is going to be conducted. As we move on to all of these specific rules and rights we want to make sure we have some just basic tips for us to remember. The first is know your rights and keep it professional. We want to make sure that we as tenants are working with our landlords but we want to do this through the enforcement of our rights. We want to keep everything important in writing and this is critical. In a digital age it's so easy for us to send an email or send a text but a lot of our renting law requires us to make sure we write a letter to our landlord in most situations. And then finally there are some other resources that are out there and it's important to know what resources are available in your community when you rent a new apartment. Starting with renting starts with the lease agreement after we've found an apartment that we might be able to afford and we're able to contact the landlord for a showing. If everything goes well we're going to be offered a lease agreement that's going to define the terms of who's renting the apartment where the apartment is located making sure that the apartment that we're shown is also the same address as the apartment that's being rented on our lease. It defines the terms of when the apartment is being rented whether it's for a year for an initial lease whether the lease is starting to a month-to-month term or whether there's some other term or agreement that's being proposed for the timeline. And then finally it's going to go over the expectations on how we're renting. So how are we paying rent? How is trash recycling being dealt with? Where is there parking on the premise? What are the shared and open spaces used by other tenants? And what are the spaces or the dwelling that we're renting at the exclusion of all others? And those are going to be in the lease agreement. It's important to know that in Vermont a lease can be written or it can be verbal. Although we encourage everyone to have a written lease when they rent it is important to know that if you enter into a rental agreement and you do not sign anything but are paying rent you have tenant rights and you have things that are protecting you. And if you have questions you should feel free to call our hotline at 802-864-0099 regarding your specific rights under a verbal lease. The next thing that we're going to go over are deposits. So generally considered security deposits a deposit is anything that's paid upfront before you've started renting a unit. These deposits are never non-refundable. Generally in most circumstances fees are prohibited in Vermont tenant law but a landlord is allowed to ask for a reasonable deposit as part of that. It's a means to protect the landlord for excessive wear and tear that may occur during the unit. Essentially damages that may be occurring whether it's a hole in the wall or if we don't report damage that causes further damage such as a leaky faucet that turns into a rotting sink. These are the types of extra damages that we would be looking at that would be coming out of a deposit. However if a unit is returned to the landlord in the same condition it was received in we should be expecting to get 100% of our security deposit back and we'll go over some of the tips on how to get those back in just a moment. One final thing is that deposits while they're meant to protect against excessive wear and tear they are not meant to protect against normal wear and tear and a classic example is a carpeted room. If there's old carpet in a building that's been there for 10 or 15 years it simply may be wearing out over tenants over the years and it's not the responsibility of the last tenant to be able to replace that when the time comes. In that sense it's normal wear and tear and the landlord is going to replace that carpet as part of their normal business practice and maintaining their unit and shouldn't be coming out of your security deposit. Another way of looking at it however would be if the carpet was just replaced before renting the apartment and then if there was damage a year later it may be excessive wear and tear to that particular carpeted entryway or room and that might come out of your security deposit. So there are going to be variations depending on the damage and the expected life expectancy of the various things in the apartment. But how do we protect ourselves? And that's really the key here. The first is looking to take as many pictures as possible before you move in. It's very tempting when you're moving into an apartment to kind of hold off on taking the photos and just move all of your stuff in. However it's exceptionally important before you move your things in to get a look of the condition of the apartment beforehand. Take as many pictures as possible. The next strategy is walking through the apartment with your landlord. A responsible landlord is going to ask you for a walk through right from the beginning. But if a landlord for whatever reason forgets it's a great opportunity for a tenant to show that they are responsible and that they do care about the unit by asking to do a walk through. This walk through should go through a basic checklist of anything that needs to be repaired or conditions of various surfaces, sinks anywhere where there's water is important to be monitoring any large holes in the wall or dents that might need to be fixed making sure all of the window sills are free from rot and paint flakes. Making sure all of the windows and doors open properly and checking all of the locks. Making sure that the room that we're being rented has a way to get out of in the case of an emergency because all bedrooms are required to have at least two egresses meaning whether it's a main door and a large window or two doors essentially two ways to get out of the room in the emergency and this is your opportunity to double check that when you're renting the unit and checking the bedroom you're going to call home. Making a list of all these damages are important and then finally having a signed copy of this list that's signed and dated by both you and your landlord and making sure you both get a copy of it. If you're the one doing the walk through I would encourage you to make sure you make a copy of it immediately and get it to your landlord as quickly as possible. If your landlord is the one holding on to the document that's just a final check to make sure it doesn't get lost make sure you take a picture of it because that picture will serve as your proof that you did a walk through and the various conditions of the apartment before you moved in. Anything that was broken before you moved in is not your responsibility and shouldn't come out of your rent or security deposit after the fact. When the time comes to move out we're going to look to do everything in reverse. We're going to do a walk through with the landlord after we've moved all of our stuff out and just like as we're eager to move all of our stuff into the unit after we get that last box in the moving truck instead of rushing over to our new apartment or our new home it's important to take a pause and to do the walk through with your landlord. You're also going to want to review and take pictures of the unit in the same way you did when you moved in. This is incredibly important because you're now will have before and after photos of the apartment that you're renting and you should be able to get most of your security deposit back if there are a few damages that shows there are no damages as a result of your tenancy that were unaddressed at the time that you moved out. If for whatever reason someone causes damages when they move in such as the next tenant you're not going to be the one responsible and you'll have the evidence to support this. Generally you should be getting your security deposit back or an itemized letter with the detailed reasons as to why you're not getting a portion or all of your security deposit back within 14 days. It's important that you give your landlord your best forwarding address because your landlord is required to send it to your last known address and you want to make sure your last known address is your new apartment and not the apartment you were previously renting. If you're living in Burlington and you like to dispute your security deposit there is a housing border review that will allow these disputes in a timely fashion within 30 to 45 days after that. Outside of the Burlington area if there are further disputes they are usually governed in small claims court and we would encourage you to contact legal assistance for more information about that. The next thing we're going to talk about are renters with disabilities and some protections that we have with various ailments and disabilities that we're dealing with. Generally in every apartment there's going to be quirks to the apartment and some of the times that might interfere with a physical or other medical condition that we may be experiencing. In the case where there are physical changes that need to be made to the apartment we call those reasonable modifications. A great example of a reasonable modification is that for whatever reason you have a medical condition that may make it difficult to go in and out of the tub without worrying about slipping. And so the simple fix would be to have proper installation of grab bars as well as anti-slip surfaces so you can be more confident when you're getting in and out of the tub. Now while it's really tempting to try to install these on our own we want to make sure that the installation of any of these modifications first goes through a process of notifying the landlord of the symptom that you're trying to address as well as the fact that it's going to be installed professionally. If you're not someone who's used to installing these things you're going to want to find a professional to do so. In the case of anti-slip surfaces they may be as simple as stickies at the bottom of a tub but for the grab bar it may be something that needs to be installed properly. It's important to note that for private landlords it's the responsibility to pay for these modifications is on the tenant. If you're in subsidized housing there may be a responsibility by the nonprofit owner of the building to make these modifications true. So you're just going to want to check with your landlord and they'll know which of those they need to address. It is important to note that there are such things as reasonable modifications so if I need for whatever reason a large ramp on the third floor apartment or an elevator that might actually be seen as an unreasonable modification and I may need to be looking for other types of housing that can accommodate that but generally if I lived on the first floor a ramp in and out of a few steps would be considered reasonable and an easier ask for us to make. The next type of special situation when it comes to a renter who has any sort of disability is what we call reasonable accommodation and just like reasonable modifications address physical disabilities reasonable accommodations address rules, policies or practices of the apartment that might interfere with a condition or a symptom of that condition that we have. A classic example is that some of us are assigned medical assistance animals as part of our day to day lives to treat a condition that we may have but we may live in an apartment that has a no pet policy. Generally speaking it's important to get a note from someone who's familiar with your condition and familiar with the animal that treats that condition or symptom and be able to provide that to the landlord to be able to overcome this obstacle. Another example would be an apartment that has parking spaces but may not have assigned parking spaces. If for whatever reason there was a medical condition that made it hard to walk from our apartment to our car but we were otherwise okay in our apartment or in our car we might ask for an assigned parking space a little bit closer and that's acceptable under reasonable accommodation assuming that parking is part of your apartment that's available to you. Moving on we're going to be looking at repairs and every apartment at some point is going to need a repair whether it's a minor repair such as a loose cabinet or a more moderate repair such as a leaky faucet. It's important to know what steps we could take and our responsibilities as tenants as well. Any issues that you have in your apartment need to be promptly reported to your landlord and just as we noted that most of this requires in writing this requires writing our landlord a letter and dating that letter saying that there is a specific issue that needs to be addressed in the apartment. Any damage or repair that needs to be made in an apartment is the responsibility of the landlords to make even if the repairs are being made as a result of damage that's at the fault of the tenant. A tenant may be responsible for paying for damage that they caused but generally the repair should still be made by the landlord. It's important to also note that we want to make sure that we're telling our landlord properly about any issues that we have in the apartment because reporting damage in and of itself isn't a negative activity. However, if we don't report that damage and it becomes a larger problem through our tenancy we can be responsible for all of the damage that was caused because we didn't report it. Classic example is a leaky faucet. Faucets are going to leak and there's very little that we can do about it. However, if we don't report that problem and the leak in the faucet gets worse it's likely that water is going to rot out the back of the faucet base or perhaps even encourage the growth of mold. And now the problem has become a simple fix to the faucet to a much larger issue to the actual structural integrity in the bathroom and we might be responsible for that if we don't report it. So it's important to put in writing any issue to the landlord as small as a leaky faucet so if it does become a larger issue later on we're not responsible for that. We've already made that report. Now, if you have an issue that you're not sure if you need to tell your landlord it's a great opportunity to call Vermont Tenants. We're going to walk you through that. Again, the number for our message line is 802-864-0099 It will take the guesswork out of when you need to write that letter and we also have pre-formatted letters that we can direct to you either via email or on our website that will help you through the process of writing the correctly worded letter to your landlord. Now under the law there are certain caveats regarding what they call repair and deduct and today we're not going to go over that in much detail. Generally it's important to make sure that you promptly report anything to your landlord and there's a waiting period of at least 30 days if not more before we attempt to make any repair ourselves. We want to give our landlord the chance to be able to make that repair but if you have questions about a repair that's been reported to your landlord and is not being taken seriously or for whatever reason the landlord is unable to get to it in a timely manner give us a call as we have some tips to help you through that process. Now when we talk about repairs we're usually talking about minor issues it's a dent in the wall a scrape in the paint a small leaky faucet or something minor like that however there are major repairs that need to be made sometimes and those are under rental safety code and so we're going to put up a brief list of what these issues might be so for instance if your water isn't running at all or you don't have any hot water if you don't have any working toilets if there's no heat windows that don't open are broken windows that can't be escaped through during a fire no smoke alarms any standing water or the visible or obvious presence of mold these would constitute safety issues that would impact the safety of you and everyone living in that unit and these are a bit more serious it's important that you tell your landlord right away and while you still need to make sure that you put all of these issues in writing it's your opportunity to call your landlord right away and let them know about the issue a responsible landlord is going to respond immediately to items like no heat or no running water and it's important that you know that if your landlord doesn't respond promptly that you have some rights to be able to report this to your local code enforcement or town health officer to make sure that these issues are promptly addressed in those cases where it's not promptly addressed and the town health officer or code enforcement offer does an inspection to inspect the issue at hand and make sure that there are no other rental safety violations in the home if there are they're going to give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to make those repairs in the case of having no heat or no running water that might be until the end of the day or to come up with some alternative emergency fix in the meantime in the issue such as a broken window they might give the landlord more time to be able to replace that window specifically in the winter time where it's a bit more difficult to do so and we have questions about whether it's a minor or major repair before you call anyone I would encourage you to simply call Vermont tenants at 802-864-0099 we're going to be help you to dissect the issue whether it's a major or minor repair and get you on the right path to getting that corrected now we talked a little bit about our rights and responsibilities as notice periods both our landlord giving us proper notice if they're going to stop renting to us or our responsibility as tenants to give our landlord proper notice that we're moving out so they can rent the unit to someone else we're going to start first with landlord notice periods the landlord notice period is the amount of time a landlord must provide you before you leave your apartment generally it's about 30 days but it can be longer or shorter depending on the issue for instance if you live in the towns of cities of Burlington or Barrie there may be a longer period of time and if you have questions about that you should just give us a call and we also have information on our website at cvoeo.org backslash tenants generally though you can assume about 30 days as your general notice period for rent increases it's actually 60 days so you have a little bit more time if you're going to be able to continue to rent the unit but your rent is going to be increasing at some point in the future notice periods though can be changed by lease agreement in some situations so it's really important that you read your lease agreement carefully and understand the notice periods as well as communicating with your landlord often times notice periods just need clear communication in writing to and from your landlord now while your landlord's notice periods under the law are measured in the number of days that they have to provide in advance the notice periods for tenants are a little bit different and we're going to show a little bit of a graphic to help demonstrate that so the tenant notice period is in the number of rental periods so whereas a landlord has 30 days we have a number of rental periods and we're going to assume a rental period of the month of December so if on November 15th I determine that I'm going to need to move out of my apartment I'm responsible and I'm at the end of my lease agreement or I'm in a month to month lease agreement it's important that this doesn't include being in the middle of your term that would be breaking your lease this is for when you're at the end of a lease agreement or in a month to month lease agreement giving a proper notice but getting back to the visual if on November 15th I'm moving out of my apartment I need to give the entire month of December for my notice period and that is going to be the notice period in which I'm still responsible to pay the rent to make sure the apartment is maintained by myself before someone else can move in and then in January I'm able to move on just like in Burlington giving landlords more time giving landlords a requirement to give us more time it's important to know that we as tenants have to give more time so in the rest of the state we have one rental period notice but in Burlington and Barrie we need to provide two rental periods notice so given the same example if I'm deciding I'm moving out in the middle of November and January as my rental periods if we break the lease or we don't give proper notice at the end of that period we can be responsible for the months that were accumulated during the period that we didn't report as well as the cost of advertising the apartment because we have such a tight rental market there's no need for a renter to have to pay those costs so just make sure when it comes time to move out of your apartment that you know what your rental periods are and that you give the proper notice of that the final topic we're just going to really brush over is termination versus eviction and these terms sometimes get used a little bit interchangeably the termination of tenancy simply means that a landlord is asking you to leave and sometimes the letters for termination of tenancy are strongly worded but generally speaking tenants can be terminated because you're at the end of a lease agreement signing a new agreement with that landlord you're going to get a letter for termination of tenancy in many situations or all situations this same letter will happen if for whatever reason we don't meet our responsibility and pay our rent we also may get a letter for termination of tenancy in that case it will then turn into an eviction but it's important to note that it's not the landlord evicting the tenant ultimately an eviction still has to go through a fairly lengthy court process that will allow the tenant and the landlord to air their case for why they're trying to force the contract being broken between the tenant and the landlord if we're generally paying our rent and maintaining our unit we may get a termination of tenancy but will likely avoid eviction notices if you receive a termination notice that you weren't expecting or you receive any court documentation that says that you may be at risk for being evicted and that the case has been started is extremely important that you don't call Vermont Tenants but actually obtain legal resources such as a lawyer while we can give a lot of advice to help you navigate the complex waters of tenancy when it comes to an eviction you need someone who's going to be able to help you through the court process and stand before you for a judge if you don't know where to start feel free to call us and we can help point you in the right direction with the various legal resources that are out there so we're going to close today and try to accomplish the real basics for tips for tenants is knowing our rights and keeping it professional this is the number one thing that we can recommend the next, just as we've said a few times is keep everything in writing and if you're unsure sending a letter is the best way when you send a letter it's important that your name, the issue your signature as well as the date that you're sending the letter are on the letter don't keep a copy of any letters that are mailed and if you need extra proof that your landlord is receiving your letters you can send it certified mail to add a little bit of extra security to the process and then finally know what resources are out there renting doesn't have to be a guessing game it's something you can be sure of you can call us at Vermont Tenants or you can ask to learn a little bit more about this so while we've gone through a really brief segment of what your renters writes full education packages that are available and so we're going to put two numbers up on the board to go over that if you're interested in taking a class to learn more about your tennis skills and you live in the Chittenden County area you can give us a call at 802-660-3455 extension 205 this is our hotline for our class coordinator and we'll be able to register you for an upcoming class going over what we did today such as Tenants Skills or recommending other classes that we have available throughout the year that help with renting