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ORDINANCE AMENDMENT OF THE NEW HAVEN BOARD OF ALDERS TO THE NEW HAVEN CODE OF ORDINANCES AMENDING TITLE III, CHAPTER 17, ARTICLE XIV TO ESTABLISH A TENANT’S RIGHTS TRANSPARENCY ORDINANCE
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Whereas, more than 70 percent of residents in the City of New Haven rent their homes;
Whereas, as a result, ensuring the safety and sanitary conditions of all rental units in the City of New Haven is critical to the quality of life, public health, and safety of all City residents;
Whereas, renters in the City of New Haven are often unaware of their rights and responsibilities because the local, state, and federal laws governing landlords and tenants are complicated and/or difficult to find and understand;
Whereas, because of this lack of transparency and easily accessible information, renters often are forced to live in unsafe or unhealthy housing conditions because they do not know how to use available protections and processes to ensure their landlords follow housing, building, and fire code laws and other landlord-tenant laws and policies;
Whereas, this ordinance amendment will help to establish transparent leases for all tenants in the City of New Haven by requiring that all landlords that are required to participate in the city’s Residential Rental Business Licensing program also must include in their leases a packet of information prepared by the Livable City Initiative Bureau describing the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants; and
Whereas; tenants will benefit from this transparency, and landlords will also benefit because tenants will be better educated about their rights and responsibilities as renters.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY ORDAINED by the New Haven Board of Alders that Title III, Chapter 17, Article XIV of the New Haven Code of Ordinances is hereby amended to add the Tenant’s Rights Transparency Ordinance language to Sec. 17-72 and Sec. 17-74 as described in the attached Schedule A and made a part of this ordinance.