'Kicked out of homes'? Worries over Alabama bill favoring landlords is overblown, says sponsor

The Alabama Senate. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

State Rep. David Sessions

Alabama's chief advocacy group for low-income families is concerned at legislation sailing through Montgomery could give landlords more freedom to kick out renters.

The bill's sponsor, state Rep. David Sessions, R-Grand Bay, believes the worries from Alabama Arise are off base, and said his legislation is merely an avenue to give small-time landlords the ability to remove problematic tenants.

The split views come as HB421 heads for a final vote in the Alabama Senate. On Tuesday, it received a favorable ruling from the Senate Governmental Affairs committee less than a week after it passed the Alabama House on a 78-4 vote.

"The main focus of the bill is to help landlords who were having issues over and over with bad tenants," said Sessions. "It gives them recourse against the tenants if they are doing something totally illegal ... not only drug possession, but in today's society, you have crystal meth being manufactured in apartments and homes. If you are caught manufacturing drugs in a rental unit, you can be evicted."

The proposed legislation lessens the amount of time given to tenants to correct violations of their lease contracts, from up to four curable breaches of the contract down to two during a 12-month period.

If the lease contract is breached, landlords can provide tenants with a notice giving them seven business days to either cure it or move out.

Sessions said the idea for the legislation surfaced about four years ago from the owner of a mobile home association within his rural Mobile County district. He said the association was seeking remedies to remove "tenants who were bad actors."

Said Sessions: "They owned 10-15 acres and may have 10 or so mobile homes to rent. Of course, it took them a long time to get the tenants out and it just became a burden on them."

Dev Wakeley, policy analyst with Alabama Arise, said the consequences of HB421 would affect more than just small-time rental properties. He said "tens of thousands" of renters in Alabama could be affected, and that the bill gives landlords more authority to boot tenants on minor infractions.

"They are saying this bill is intended to protect small rental markets where the owner rents out a few rooms, but the law doesn't stop there," Wakeley said. "It allows massive abuses on the part of well-heeled and well-provisioned landlords at the expense of tenants."

He also said minor offenses, if they occur only twice, can give landlords the fuel they need to remove a tenant, if they aren't problematic.

Wakeley provided an example: A recently married couple, which for whatever reason, forgets to renew their vehicle license tag, would be subject to eviction.

"People are going to lose their ability to stay in their homes because of this bill," he said. "They will lose their ability to stay there on things that shouldn't allow them to get kicked out."

Sessions said he doesn't think the example has much merit.

"They can still resolve their issues twice within a year," he said. "Plus, we give them seven business days to remedy it."

Sessions added: "I feel bad for tenants in bad situations, and I'm willing to help legislators do something about what is perceived to be slumlords. But this legislation has nothing to do with that. We are trying to address the bad actors."

Wakeley said Alabama Arise does support provisions in the bill that give landlords more ability in removing tenants who are manufacturing drugs or illegally shooting guns.

But he said the legislation represents a change to what Alabama Arise considers a "balanced set of procedures" for both landlords and tenants spelled out the state's 2006 Landlord-Tenant Act.

In fact, Alabama is one Southern state not listed online as an example of states whose laws tilt in favor of landlords.

Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas and Florida are considered landlord-friendly states, for a variety of reasons.

  • In Mississippi, landlords can evict tenants on what they perceive to be garbage.
  • Georgia has an informal eviction process, which allows a landlord to file for unlawful detainer status 48 hours if a renter has not paid his or her monthly rent.
  • Arkansas renters can be evicted for not paying their rent on time, no matter what the reason, and maintenance is only required on the landlord's part if the property violates public health and safety codes.

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