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Florida House passes bill that could gut Orange County’s tenant bill of rights and fair notice requirements | Florida News | Orlando

The Republican-dominated Florida House passed a bill on Wednesday in a 81-33 vote that’d wipe out local governments’ renters protections across Florida, preempting to the state all local policies that affect landlord-tenant relations, including tenant protections implemented in Central Florida.

The bill (which still needs approval from the Florida Senate) was largely passed along party lines, with Democrats opposed.


“Amid this housing affordability crisis, this bill would gut any protections offered to tenants by local governments, shifting all power over these protections to the state,” said Rep. Yvonne Hinson before the House vote. “Local governments are closest to our communities. That’s why they need the flexibility and power to respond to their community’s unique local needs. Locally elected people are far more aware of the protections their communities need than the state.”

The scope of the bill, which could stand to undo years of local policy-making, is far-reaching.

Forty-six ordinances in 35 cities and counties would be affected by the bill (HB 1417), according to Republican Rep. Tiffany Esposito.

That includes Orange County’s “tenant bill of rights” ordinance and its fair notice requirements, which went into effect earlier this year to help address issues of skyrocketing rent, rising evictions and homelessness.

The tenant bill of rights — similar to ordinances passed in at least six other Florida cities and counties — contains anti-discrimination protections that aren’t currently granted under state law.

For example, Orange County’s ordinance protects tenants against source of income discrimination by landlords, an issue that largely affects renters of color, women and people with disabilities. It also offers protection against discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived status as a victim of domestic violence, dating violence or stalking.

Orange County’s fair notice ordinance, also approved within the last year, requires landlords to provide tenants with at least 60 days’ notice of rent hikes above 5%.

Orange County’s Office of Tenant Services, established in part to help enforce these ordinances, wouldn’t be killed by HB 1417.

But it would only be able to enforce state law, according to Esposito.

As a crumb for tenants, the bill would establish a notice period for terminating month-to-month tenancy from 15 days’ notice to 30 days’ notice.

At the same time, the bill would also reduce the notice period under current law for tenants with rental agreements of a specific duration from 60 days’ notice minimum to no less than 30 days’ and no more than 60 days’ notice.

The bill was opposed by advocacy groups like Florida Rising, and supported by trade groups like the Florida Realtors and the Florida Apartment Association, which both sued the Orange County government over its popular rent stabilization initiative.

Florida Democrats blasted the bill prior to its passage, and filed over 20 amendments in an attempt to either water it down or improve it. All were rejected by the Florida House’s Republican majority.

Orlando State Rep. Anna Eskamani, whose own pro-tenant housing bill is currently languishing, filed an amendment that would have gutted Esposito’s bill. (Less of an amendment, more of a polite death.)

Another would have included a provision to establish a statewide task force to investigate tenant abuses and predatory practices by corporate landlords and property management companies.

In explanation, Eskamani said, “Part of the concern that I have and I wish to investigate and learn more about is: Is the free market really dictating these prices, or is it being controlled by outside forces, monopolies and market manipulation?”

But Republicans weren’t swayed.

Other amendments would have either exempted specific ordinances from the preemption bill — such as the tenants bill of rights ordinances — or establish protections that state law doesn’t currently offer, including the source of income anti-discrimination protections.

“This amendment seeks to limit harm to elderly Floridians, disabled Floridians and working Floridians by including all sources of income,” said Rep. Lindsay Cross of Pinellas County, naming social security benefits, child support, alimony, veterans benefits, disability benefits, unemployment, pension and retirement benefits, and rental assistance programs as sources of income that should be accepted for housing purposes.

The goal, Cross said, is to “simply make sure that we protect local laws that prohibit landlords who are discriminating based on a tenant’s source of income.”

The Republican House majority wasn’t having it.

“This bill protects tenants. This bill protects property owners. And this bill protects capitalism,” said Rep. Esposito, in defense of her mass preemption bill.

Other preemption bills that critics say will chill local policymaking, including a bill targeting living wage ordinances, are also advancing in the state Legislature.

A bill banning rent control in Florida (the “Live Local Act”) has already been signed into law — although this didn’t stop multiple Republicans from bringing up rent control, casting it as a bogeyman that should be eradicated (conveniently forgetting it already has been).

“I just double-checked the bill, and members, we’re not talking about rent control,” said Rep. Eskamani, on the House floor. “This is about consumer protections, not rent control, so put those concerns aside.”

“Every single one of our communities should have the freedom to be healthy, prosperous and safe,” said Rep. Hinson, on the House floor just a day before. “That means empowering local communities to make the best decisions for their families, their homes and their businesses.”

“We need to keep big government and corporate elites out of our communities and leave local decisions to local people,” she added.

If the Senate version is approved, and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the bill would be effective July 1, 2023.

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