Tensions rise over possible a proposed law change for landlords

OWENSBORO, Ky. (WEHT) — The Owensboro Human Relations Commission is seeing pushback on a proposed law change surrounding rentals. This comes after the commission hosted several public forums on the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act (URLTA).

The URLTA is a standard set of laws defining the rights and responsibilities between residential landlords and their tenants. The act has since been passed in 16 Kentucky cities and counties, including Louisville and Lexington.

Rondalyn Randolph is the interim Executive Director for the Human Relations Commission who says this act sets landlord obligations and enhances tenant protection.

“They’re the ones that have the upper hand because they have the resources,” Randolph said. “But a lot of times, tenants don’t understand the current law. They don’t understand what their rights are.”

“I need to show up for things like this and it needs to get passed,” tenant Harlow Leslie said, attending a forum on the proposed act. “They’re not going to fight for us. We have to fight for us.”

Under the URLTA landlords are responsible for maintaining habitable conditions for tenants. For roommates Tess Elder and Harlow Leslie, they say their current landlord has treated them well and exceeded their expectations. But they could not say the same for their previous one.

“We were without air conditioning for three weeks straight,” Leslie said. “I worked paycheck to paycheck. An act like this would have been extremely helpful to us where we knew that if we pursued legal action, there would be an avenue for us.”

Randolph says the backlash from landlords was expected. She calls the landlords organized and unified after witnessing groups of them attend *each of the public forums

“Anytime you talk about money,” Randolph said. “Money is personal. Anytime you try to interject change that is going to affect money, then you’re going to have pushback.”

Randolph says the commission hopes to host several more forums in the near future aiming to get more feedback from tenants.