Baltimore landlords would pay storage fees for evicted tenants under council proposal

The Baltimore City Council is debating a bill that would streamline the eviction process and make it more compassionate — a measure that even its sponsor acknowledged rattles landlords and property managers.

The legislation would require owners of rental units to provide at least two weeks’ notice before a scheduled eviction date, up from a week. It would also give tenants up to seven business days to reclaim personal property left at a rental unit, with the option to request that the period be extended to up to 30 days.

The bill’s sponsor, Councilman James Torrence, a West Baltimore Democrat, has spoken about his past struggles with housing insecurity. He said it’s based on his lived experiences.

“I’ve watched people lose everything,” Torrence said at the start of a council hearing Tuesday. “We have to find a way.”

But after nearly two hours of testimony from tenants, advocates, landlords and lobbyists, Torrence said the bill needed more refining.

“I don’t have all the answers,” he said. “We have to get this right.”

No further action on the bill has been scheduled.

State law requires landlords to alert tenants of their scheduled eviction date at least six days in advance, although local governments can make their own rules and don’t have to follow the state minimum.

Statewide attitudes toward evictions have shifted since 2022, when a federal judge awarded Baltimore residents Marshall Todman and Tiffany Gattis $186,000 in damages following their surprise eviction.

The couple came home from work to find their lives’ possessions locked in the house. All they had left were the clothes they were wearing.

U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman found that a city ordinance allowing landlords to take immediate possession of a tenant’s belongings was unconstitutional.

At the Tuesday hearing, Aaron Greenfield, director of government affairs at the Maryland Multi-Housing Association, which represents rental owners and managers, said Boardman’s ruling did not specify how long tenants’ possessions should be stored.

Tenants’ possessions left behind on the day of eviction are considered abandoned under the current law.

The association supports giving tenants more notice before an eviction, but believes extending the reclamation period would cause housing providers to absorb potential storage and moving costs by raising rents.

“You’re kicking me in the teeth,” Ned Carey, a real estate investor, testified. “Where is the compassion for landlords?”

Property owners and managers already face long waits to get court dates and evictions scheduled, said several landlords who spoke Tuesday.

Tenants and their advocates testified that they’ve lost precious belongings in the midst of evictions, including family heirlooms, medical supplies, identifying documents and even in one case an urn with a mother’s ashes, according to testimony Tuesday.

Ashley Simms, whose family lost their home late last year after falling behind on rent payments, called her eviction unfair and unjust.

Simms said she attempted to use eviction prevention grant funds to repay the balance of what she owed. The property manager refused.

Her family lost clothes, electronics, jewelry and furniture in the eviction, she said. She, her husband Dante and her six children moved into a house in Cherry Hill that Dante inherited from his father.

“We had to start all over again,” Simms said.

According to an amended version of the bill, property owners would have to provide free storage for up to seven business days.

After that, the tenant could request an extension of up to 30 days total to collect their possessions, though a landlord could charge “reasonable” storage fees after the seventh day.

Once a retrieval process starts, tenants would have 24 hours to complete the effort, and would generally have access to the storage site from Mondays to Fridays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Landlords would be required to choose a storage location in the city and would not be held liable for any missing or damaged property, so long as they secure it against weather and theft.