Tenant Organizing

1202 Williamson Street, Suite 102, Madison, WI 53703
Rental Rights (608) 257-0006 - Administration (608) 257-0143 - Fax (608) 286-0804
E-mail asktrc@tenantresourcecenter.org

Tenant associations may be the most effective way for tenants to improve housing conditions and stop a pattern of illegal landlord activity. Organizing a tenant association is not easy, but it can be done successfully for short-term projects. Beginning an association demands commitment by a few motivated tenants. Tenants can organize over any issue and for any reason. However, organizing an association for the sake of organizing is useless.

Forming a Strong Tenant Association

Pick an Issue

A good tenant association (just like a strong neighborhood association or labor union) must be focused on a shared issue or grievance. If there is no shared issue, do not organize. Some common shared issues that a tenant association can organize around include:

A pattern of illegal landlord entry.
A landlord attempt to change rules; this can include anything from banning pets to imposing a late fee to changing the notice needed to end a lease.
A repair problem or lack of maintenance.

Communication

To form an association, the organizers must communicate with their fellow tenants. Get to know the people in your building. Go door-to-door in your building, talking to other renters.

General Meeting

A general meeting is vital for creating a strong, unified association. All interested tenants should attend the meeting, share their opinions, and participate in some fashion. The meeting should stress involvement and cooperation.

Be serious and emotional; a passionate meeting will send the association full speed towards its goal. Some goals, and concrete steps towards meeting them, must be established at this meeting. If you haven't already, take this opportunity to get the names, phone numbers, and apartment numbers of all attendees.

Gain Credibility

The organization must be credible in the eyes of the tenants and the entire community. The first step to gaining credibility is not to lose it; the association should never act until it is ready.

In order to represent the tenants, it is preferable to have the membership of at least 50 percent of the building's tenants. However, every member of the tenant association does not need to participate. With a short-term tenant association, a committed core group can get results by working as a team.

Another important step to gaining credibility is that the association must be self-running without its organizers. This ensures that the association is the tenants and not the organizers. However, this may not happen with a short-term group.

Finally, credibility can be gained through personal communication such as written updates delivered door-to-door, a telephone chain, and through collection of association dues.

Organizational Structure

A successful tenant association demands a structure in order to delegate work and authority. A method of organization might include:

Block or floor captains. This is an effective way for the association to keep in touch with its members. Floor captains may distribute leaflets, collect dues, or carry out other duties that demand communication with the tenants. A captain is obviously required to do more work than normal members, and their commitment to the association's cause should be greater than average.
Task groups. This an excellent way for the association to divide work among its members. Members can work on task groups that encompass their interests and strengths. Typical task groups might be for news updates or newsletters, the inspection of violations, and research.
Leaders. The best leaders of a tenant association are broad-based. They should be a collective representation of the entire association. Leadership should involve as many people as are possible and practical.

Funding

Expenses for a tenant association might include photocopying, legal fees, telephone calls, or other applicable costs. When a tenant association has just one specific issue, costs are considerably lower than an association with no single, common goal.

Funding for expenses generally comes from tenant association dues. Dues can be collected annually, twice a year, quarterly, and even monthly. However, we suggest collection of dues at the initial meeting with receipts kept and all uses of money documented.

Public Relations

Public relations and community support are important to a successful tenant association, because publicity might harm a landlord's case. A court could be influenced by a public that is sympathetic to the association's cause.

Similarly, a landlord might decide to settle out of court if there is a chance that his reputation could be harmed by negative publicity. The threat of negative publicity is one area where even a small tenants group can have real impact by acting as a group rather than individually. Hence, a good tenant association will use public relations to their advantage.

A good association might attempt to appeal to the media through press conferences, press releases, and public demonstration. Public relations can also include uniting with other tenant and neighborhood groups.

Research

Research involves finding out financial information about the building and its owners. Such research about the landlord's revenue and other money involvements might be used as leverage in some disputes, particularly in disputes over rent increases. Effective research on the building and the landlord can occur at your city's Tax Assessor's office, Building Inspection office, and small claims and circuit courts' records center.

Fear of Landlord Retaliation

Often tenants fear that their involvement in a tenant association will result in landlord retaliation against them. Some tenants fear that their involvement will cause the landlord to kick them out of their apartment or raise their rent.

Landlord retaliation against anyone who tries to organize or participate in a tenant association is illegal. State laws and regulations and City of Madison ordinances protect tenants against retaliation.

Negotiating with the Landlord

Here are some guidelines to follow when negotiating with your landlord. This is an abridged version of an article which appeared in "Shelterforce" (Vol.1, No.4); the publication of the National Tenant Union.

Negotiating with a landlord can be the most important event in the life of a tenant association. It is vital that the negotiators come to the table prepared and fully aware of the responsibilities resting on them.

Lawyers

The primary role of a lawyer is to be a resource person and not a leader. It is important at all times to be aware of the legal implications of proposals on the table and the legal status of the landlord's position.

Strong Negotiating Team

The people who sit down to bargain should be strongly committed to the cause, have the confidence of other tenants, and have time and energy.

Lead Negotiators

Plan your negotiations carefully and assign roles to people. Think through the whole process and use association members to your best advantage. Assign association members to focus on aspects of the issues for which they can use their strengths in the negotiation process.

Know the Building

Unprepared negotiators feel pressure to compromise rather than appear ignorant. A landlord can gain control of a meeting by overwhelming tenants with more knowledge. This is where research comes in. You should know the history of the building through building inspection and tax records, and the landlord's history through inspection, court and other public records.

List of Demands

You should divide demands into three categories:

Non-negotiable: on these there is no compromise.
Negotiable: nice if you get them but not your top priority.
Unobtainable: nothing to lose, so ask for the sky as it will make the other demands seem all the more reasonable.

Written Agreements

Written agreements go much further than verbal promises. It will save time if you have prepared documents. Make sure to get all agreements in writing and signed by both parties.

Outnumber

Your team should be larger than the landlords.

Site

Make sure the meetings are in places that are comfortable to your negotiators.

Owner

No sense in talking if the chief isn't there. Be sure that someone with authority to make agreements is present.

The Powers of a Tenant Union

Economic

A landlord probably has more money to spend defending a dispute then any single tenant. However, the pooled resources of a tenant association can counter-balance the landlord's money.

Another important economic advantage of a tenant association is that they can pool their resources together for attorney fees. In addition, the amount they may sue for is much greater, therefore forcing the landlord to take the tenants seriously.

Political

Often disputes between a landlord and a tenant association becomes extremely political. Landlords will attempt to break up an association. However, a strong, unified association can overcome pressures by sticking together.

For instance, a landlord can easily evict one tenant who puts an unfair rent increase in an escrow account, but the landlord will face a real battle trying to evict an entire building that has pooled its resources to hire an attorney.

Collective

The impact of a group of renters who work together on a common problem is much greater than that of an individual renter. Whether making a joint complaint to a building inspector, filing a group complaint with Consumer Protection, or pursuing a class-action lawsuit, the association will draw major attention to their housing problems. A building inspector, consumer investigator, judge or reporter will be impressed by a pattern of illegal landlord activities that are documented by many tenants.