Philadelphia Renter's Law Suspended Transcript

STEPHANIE MARUDAS: Home is the place where you come at the end of the day and want to relax and kick off your shoes. But how can you when water is leaking through the ceiling, bugs are running through your cabinets, and mice are scurrying across the floor. We're going to introduce you to two renters in Philadelphia who actually experienced these things. First, we meet Hallemah Creighton. She found an apartment last December near St. Joseph’s University for $450 a month. But she says the rent isn’t worth her money.

HALLEMAH CREIGHTON: Yeah, and I didn’t live like this in prison. I spent two and a half years in prison and I was in a halfway house. And I didn’t live like this there and I wasn’t brought up like this.

(Creighton in bathroom standing near toilet)

You can smell it reeking up from the basement a little bit. It has a little odor. The toilet has a crack right here. You can see straight in the basement.

(Creighton in kitchen)

I’m not trying to stay here, to live for free. I want out. You know what I mean. Because of me staying here, I put lotion on. I itch a lot. It drives me crazy. I can’t stand these bugs. And I’m constantly sweeping, sweeping, sweeping and it doesn’t make a difference. I clean, clean, clean. It don’t make a difference. It still look dirty. It still smellsnasty.

STEPHANIE MARUDAS: Creighton is so disgusted with the apartment that she actually called the city to come out and do a housing code inspection. The inspector found numerous safety violations. Technically, when Hallemah Creighton moved into the apartment, her landlord was supposed to give her a Certificate of Rental Suitability. But Creighton didn't know she had that right, and it’s hard to know whether her landlord knew he had to do this or not.

(Flash on Screen: Under the law landlords are required to provide certificate)

So here's a case where the city’s good faith measure has failed. It was meant to protect renters like Hallemah Creighton from moving into places that are unsafe and unhealthy. A tenants' rights organization in town says Hallemah Creighton shouldn’t have to live like this. This same organization is the one that planted the seeds for the Rental Suitability law.

PHIL LORD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR TURN- TENANT UNION REPRESENTATIVE NETWORK: The intent of the bill is really significant because it shifts the burden from the tenant to move in and find out what’s wrong and then complain about it. It shifts it to the landlord to make sure the landlord has a decent place before they rent it out. And we believe that shift is really important.

STEPHANIE MARUDAS: But the landlord associations in town totally objected to the legislation from the get-go.

LAWRENCE FISHER, ATTORNEY FOR THE APARTMENT ASSOCIATION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA: We view it as unconstitutional first and foremost and for a variety of reasons. The city requires an owner of rental property to obtain a certificate of suitability at the inception of any tenancy. And only L&I [Licenses and Inspections] can issue the certificate if there are no outstanding violation notices. That’s very significant. Because under the ordinance at issue, any alleged code violation no matter how minor or arcane halts the issuance of the certificate and the owner loses his right to rent the property or bring suit for past rent due.

STEPHANIE MARUDAS: So the landlords took the city to court over the law, and they pretty much didn't comply with it. They thought it was too vague, and that it drove up their costs. For $28 a pop, they said the certificates were draining their pockets. But this year, after Mayor Michael Nutter took office, the landlords scored a major victory this past April.

WENDELL PRITCHETT, MAYOR’S POLICY DIRECTOR FROM JANUARY – AUGUST 2008: The Mayor is very concerned about protecting tenants and thinks it’s very important that all tenants have access to an apartment that is up to code and is decent and habitable. That’s very important. The Mayor voted for the bill that created the Certificate of Rental Suitability. What the administration did when it came in January, like in many cases, was to do an evaluation of the program. In that case, the landlords had sued and so we had to figure out whether any of their claims were valid. What the law department decided was that the law, even though the administration supported it, had some vagueness that needed to be evaluated. And so that’s why they entered into this stipulation with the landlords. And we spent a bunch of time over the last four months trying to figure out a compromise that will serve the tenants of the city. That’s very important but also deal with some of the concerns of the landlords.

STEPHANIE MARUDAS: Now let’s meet Dellarosa Wroten. She moved into a rental home this past July- several months after the city suspended the rental suitability law. She was renting from a first-time landlord, who we found out was not licensed at the time.

DELLAROSA WROTEN: (pointing at crack on living room ceiling) This is all along here buckling and besides here is all from the bathroom. Down this wall is where the water was leaking, all across the ceiling and back down here again.

(Wroten in different room pointing at closet)

This is the back room, mostly it’s all in the closet. You got to get a good look at this. This is where I put the first home mold test kit and I sat it here on the floor and (see mold) not even in 72 hours, it grew out so much mold.

(Wroten on elevated back porch)

What this is a brand new door with no steps. You could really walk and hit the ground outside.

(See steep drop)

STEPHANIE MARUDAS: Wroten only lived in the house for several weeks. She decided to move her family out after her son's asthma started to flare up. She called the city’s housing code department to come out and do an inspection. And it turns out, there were a lot of safety violations. The day we met Wroten, her landlord unexpectedly showed up and accused Wroten of trespassing and called the police.

(Police talking with Wroten and landlord)

DELLAROSA WROTEN: I don’t know how I’m trespassing if my name is still on the lease.

POLICE OFFICER: And your lease is valid until?

DELLAROSA WROTEN: Until next year unless she can release my name from it. She takes my name off the lease, I don’t ever have to come back here again.

STEPHANIE MARUDAS: The police said that Wroten had the right to be there because her name was still on the lease and she still had things in the house. Wroten is now in a dispute with her landlord over the rent. But we're just left wondering: how will Philadelphia revamp the rental suitability law so it has teeth to protect renters and landlords equally.

For It's Our City, I'm Stephanie Marudas.