As a college town, Madison has a large amount of renters. This means tenants' rights are an important issue for the city to tackle. The ordinance proposed this week to the City Council is a significant step in protecting the rights of students as renters.
The new law will crack down on negligent landlords by forcing them to reimburse tenants for repairs they make.
Many students know the hassle of dealing with landlords when it comes to making repairs. Sometimes it will take days or even weeks for a maintenance crew to fix the problem. That is why this type of law is necessary.
This editorial board supports the City Council in its effort to look out for students. Since most landlords do make repairs in a relatively timely manner, this law forces the rest to clean up their act.
After looking over the proposal, even an attorney for Madison Property Management said it was a good idea, although he noted there was no provision for a third party review.
At the City Council meeting many people echoed this concern claiming the system could be abused. However, many of these claims, such as a tenant ripping their toilet out of the ground and then seeking reimbursement, were rightly discarded as improbable.
More than likely the system will be used very seldom as it will act more as a deterrent for irresponsible landlords than anything else.
Furthermore, by setting up some type of third party review to determine the validity of a tenant's claim, most problems can be averted.
