"During my first year as District 4 Councilmember, two events took place at large rental properties–the fire at The Arrive in Silver Spring, which tragically resulted in the death of Melanie Diaz, and the power outage at The Grand in North Bethesda. Hearing from residents during and the days after the events led our team to take a closer look at the health and safety notices and emergency plans required by management,” said Council Vice President Stewart, who also serves as chair of the Council’s Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee. “We are introducing Bill 7-24, the Tenant Notification and Protection Bill, to safeguard against lack of information about fire prevention and emergency plans, and insurance coverage, and to overall increase communication between tenants and management.”   

Bill 7-24 would require landlords of residential buildings to include certain information in a residential lease agreement, including specifying insurance coverage and providing information about automatic sprinkler systems and emergency evacuation and safety plans. The legislation would require landlords to provide emergency safety plans that would need approval from the Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Additionally, this new legislation would expand on current county law, which requires residential landlords to provide air conditioning to residential units and ensure that the temperature inside the units does not exceed 80 degrees. Bill 7-24 would require landlords to provide an emergency phone number to directly contact the tenant’s landlord or a representative who has around-the-clock access to adjust and repair the unit’s cooling system, if it fails to maintain a temperature below 80 degrees during the summer months. Landlords must also provide contact information of at least one responsible building management representative who can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  

Finally, the bill requires that specific information be included in the notice by landlords to all tenants regarding the disruption of essential services in a rental building, including building-wide outages, maintenance, and repairs. For example, the legislation requires landlords to notify tenants if any electricity, water, heat or the power generator interruptions occur and provide regular updates related to the issue until they are resolved. 

More information on Bill 7-24 can be found here. The public hearing for this bill will be scheduled at a later date.