Contact your legislators about the importance of passing a Strong Tenants’ Rights Omnibus Bill

We need YOU to contact your legislators about the importance of passing the strongest Tenants’ Rights Omnibus bill possible! Tenants’ rights haven’t been updated in years and often fail to offer necessary protections for renters in Minnesota today. Renters make up almost 30% of the state’s population, making this a pressing issue. The Tenants’ Rights Omnibus bills include multiple pieces of legislation HOME Line has directed or helped work get to this point. 

Those include: 

• Eviction Protections: Creates a pre-filing notice that would require landlords to give their tenants 14 days notice before filing an eviction action against them.

• Expungement Reform: Changes eviction reporting so that it would be prohibited until a court judgment is made for the landlord or it would only be on a person’s record for three years, among other protections. 

• Source of Income Protections: Makes it illegal to discriminate against renters who have a subsidy to help them pay rent. 

• Rent Transparency: Requires landlords to be transparent in the rent they charge, prohibiting non-optional fees for non-optional services (for example, administrative fees or move-in and move-out fees).

• Privacy Expansions: Requires 24-hour notice from landlords before entering a tenant’s apartment, unless the tenant and landlord agree otherwise.

• Infirmity Protections: Allows tenants to break their lease due to physician-approved medical conditions that require them to move. 

• Statewide Heat Code Minimum: Imposes a standard heat minimum in apartments of 68 degrees Fahrenheit from Oct 1 to April 30 if the tenant does not control the heat. 

• Emergency Repairs and Court Fee: Expands the category of emergency repairs to include no working refrigerator, no working air conditioning, loss of any conditions, services, or facilities that pose a serious and negative impact on health or safety, and reduces court fees for enforcing emergency repairs.  

You can find your legislator and their contact info here. 

Here is the language that can be used as a script for when you call or email. We strongly encourage you to customize your calls and/or emails.

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CALL SCRIPT

Hi my name is [NAME], I live at [ADDRESS]. 

I am reaching out to ask [YOUR LEGISLATOR] to support the strongest Tenants’ Rights Omnibus bill possible. 

As a tenant, the protections and expansions included in Senate File 1298 and House File 917 are desperately needed and will have an enormous effect upon the lives and wellbeing of renters across the state. The bill would provide Minnesota renters with the right to a safe, accessible, and affordable home. Passing the strongest bill possible is a matter of health, safety, and financial security for tenants.  

Thank you for your time and please support a strong Tenants’ Rights Omnibus bill. Minnesota renters are relying on you to expand tenant protections. 

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EMAIL SCRIPT 

Dear [YOUR LEGISLATOR], 

My name is [NAME], I live in [ADDRESS]. 

I am reaching out in support of the Tenants’ Rights Omnibus Bill, Senate File 1298 and House File 917. These bills protect and enforce tenants’ rights to safe, comfortable, and affordable homes. Passing the strongest bill possible would help to protect tenants from vulnerable situations created by medical issues, unforeseen financial emergencies, and other issues.  

The Tenants’ Rights Omnibus Bill provides tenants with the right to privacy, increased rental transparency, and safe and functional homes, while providing greater accountability and enforcement against landlords who violate these protections. These policy changes would offer tenants 14-day pre-eviction notices, sensible expungement reform, rent transparency, restrictions on landlords entering tenants’ homes, protect tenants who use subsidies to pay rent from discrimination, and the ability to break lease agreements for medical reasons. 

As a tenant, the protections and expansions included in these bills are desperately needed and will have an enormous effect upon the lives and wellbeing of renters across the state, especially amongst marginalized populations. I believe it is important you prioritize these bills for the safety and wellbeing of Minnesota residents. 

Thank you for your time and please support the strongest Tenants’ Rights Omnibus bill possible. Minnesota renters urgently need more protections. We cannot afford to wait.

Sincerely, 

[INSERT NAME]