How is renting different from home ownership?
What are my obligations as a renter?
What can I do to keep my rental home a healthy home?
What if I have an unhealthy condition in my rental home?
What are my rights as a tenant?
Fact sheets for occupants and occupants during COVID-19
What about Residential Or Commercial Property Maintenance Codes?
What is URLTA?
What are the minimum requirements for rental housing?
Can I make an official problem?
What if I live in federal government assisted housing?
Does the USDA help with tenants in backwoods?
Where can I find out more about healthy housing policy?
Additional resources

* * * Our Healthy Homes staff are not doctors or legal representatives. The info on our Healthy Homes Website does not supply medical or legal recommendations. This details is not a replacement for visiting your physician or for talking to a lawyer about your specific situation. * * *

3 Actions a Worried Renter Should Do:

1. Put everything in composing. Take photographs and videos. Save e-mails, texts, letters, and voicemails. Write a calendar of occasions.

2. Do not stop paying rent. It would likely be versus the lease or the law. Keep your rent invoices as proof you paid.

3. Read your lease. Whatever is written in the lease is a legal contract. Both occupant and property owner have duties.

It is likely unlawful for a landlord to strike back versus a tenant who files a grievance, calls Buiding Codes, or takes legal action. Changing locks, turning off energies, revealing up often, or wrongly raising rent can be retaliation.

How is renting different from own a home?

Renting is various from home ownership in that the occupant should rely on somebody else to make repair work. The tenant may not be able to make changes to the home without consent. A tenant has both rights and responsibilities. Renting can be a great option for many individuals to maintain a healthy home environment, both inside and outdoors. Whether you rent a house, home, duplex, mobile home or cabin you can keep the 7 healthy homes concepts. Bear in mind that health begins in your home.

What are my obligations as an occupant?

Renters are accountable for cleanliness and safety. You may rent with no formal contract, or you may have a lease contract. The most common type of renter in Tennessee is a tenant who signs a lease contract to pay lease monthly throughout the year. Renters may be asked to supply a security deposit. Lease agreements are legally binding agreements. You are accountable for following the terms of your lease. Some lease contracts have addendums such as pet policies, bug control contracts or for reporting water damage. You are accountable for: paying your lease on time, paying any late fees, keeping the location clean and safe, not letting anyone else damage it, not breaking the law, dealing with your garbage, and following your proprietor's guidelines. If you break your lease, then it may end up being a legal concern.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance shared Tips for First-Time Renters as well as Tips on How to Spot Rental and Moving Scammers.

What can I do to keep my rental home a healthy home?

There are 8 standard concepts to preserving a healthy home.

1. Keep it Dry. - Damp homes provide a great environment for mites, roaches, rodents and molds.
2. Keep it Clean. - Clean homes help decrease bug infestations and exposure to pollutants.
3. Keep it Pest-Free. - Exposure to mice and cockroaches may increase asthma attacks. Improper pesticide treatments for bug problems can intensify illness, considering that pesticide residues in homes can pose health threats.
4. Keep it Safe. - Most of kids's injuries take place in the home. Falls are the most frequent reason for property injuries to children, followed by injuries from objects in the home, burns, and poisonings.
5. Keep it Contaminant-Free. - Avoid exposure to lead, radon, carbon monoxide gas, pesticides, asbestos and environmental tobacco smoke. Remember exposure is often greater inside.
6. Keep it Ventilated. - Studies have actually shown increasing fresh air in a home enhances breathing health.
7. Keep it Maintained. - Poorly-maintained homes are at risk of being unhealthy.
8. Keep it Thermally Controlled. - Houses that do not preserve adequate temperatures might position the security of residents at increased danger from exposure to extreme heat or cold.

If you use these principles as a guide, you can keep a safe and healthy home. If you are having an issue preserving any of these concepts, other parts of this website will know and resources to assist you.

What if I have an unhealthy condition in my rental home?

If you have an unhealthy condition in your rental home, then it may be your obligation to repair the problem or it might be your property owner's obligation to make repair work. Read your rental lease arrangement. Abide by any requirements for tidiness or security. Report any needed repair work to the landlord as they emerge. Putting your concerns in composing is best. This creates a record of your issues. Repairs to your rental home must be made in an affordable quantity of time. The amount of time may be listed in your lease.

If your property manager has actually not made repair work in a reasonable quantity of time, you might require to communicate more straight, such as with extra composed grievances or an in person conference. If your proprietor continues to overlook your issues, you might require to pursue legal action.

Disputes between a proprietor and a tenant are civil problems. Most property manager and renter issues are beyond the authority of the Health Department. These concerns would be ruled on by a civil court judge interpreting the law. There are some programs that support tenants.

What are my rights as a tenant?

According to the Legal Aid Society, as a renter you deserve to a habitable location and to live in harmony. Your rights as a renter might differ depending on which county you live in. The Legal Aid Society has a beneficial reality sheet to help you understand your rights as an occupant. How to get in touch with the Legal Aid Society or the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services is noted below.

If your rental home needs an emergency repair to keep it healthy, such as a repair work of the heat, gas, lights, water, sewage, pipes or cooling, you must signal your property owner right away.

If the requirement for repair in not an emergency situation, then 14 days is usually thought about as an affordable quantity of time for the property manager to make repairs. Hopefully, most repair work will be made much quicker after a property owner is warned. Use your regular technique of reporting requirements for repair such as a site, call, text message, or office see. Put something into composing to record when you made the landlord familiar with the requirement for repair.

In some counties you can use some of your lease cash to make these instant repair work. If the issue was your fault, you might have to help pay for the repairs.

You can not be dislodged of your rental home. You can not be kicked out without notice. The property manager can not change the locks or turned off your energies to make you leave. The majority of the time, a proprietor requires to go to court before evicting you. If you did something unsafe or threatening, the property manager only needs to offer you 3 (3) days to move out. If you did not pay rent or broke your lease arrangement, you might be provided a thirty (30) day notice to move out. If you have legal concerns about housing, you should talk to an attorney or legal services.

The Tennessee Alliance for Legal Serices has a HELP4TN site, chatbot, and telephone to assist people who need assistance with their legal issues. If you do not have your own attorney, this is a great site to start.

If you qualify based on earnings or help status, the Legal Aid Society might have the ability to help. Bear in mind, Legal Aid has a customer waiting list and seldom will cases take place quickly. Contact the workplace near you to learn more.

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands - 1-800-238-1443
Offices in Clarksville, Columbia, Cookeville, Gallatin, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Oak Ridge, and Tullahoma

Legal Aid Society of East Tennessee - 1-865-637-0484
Offices in Knoxville, Johnson City, Chattanooga, and Cleveland

West Tennessee Legal Services - 1-800-372-8346
Offices in Jackson, Dyersburg, Huntingdon, and Selmer

Memphis Area Legal Services - 1-888-207-6386
Offices in Memphis and Covington

The Legal Aid Society produced these reality sheets to help you comprehend your rights and duties as a tenant. Click the left image for counties of 75,000 or more population and the ideal image for smaller sized counties.

Anderson, Blount, Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Maury, Montgomery, Rutherford, Sevier, Shelby, Sullivan, Sumner, Washington, Williamson, or Wilson

Bedford, Benton, Bledsoe, Campbell, Cannon, Carroll, Carter, Cheatham, Chester, Claiborne, Clay, Cocke, Coffee, Crockett, Cumberland, Decatur, DeKalb, Dickson, Dyer, Fayette, Fentress, Franklin, Gibson, Giles, Grainger, Greene, Grundy, Hamblen, Hancock, Hardeman, Hardin, Hawkins, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Lake, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Loudon, McMinn, McNairy, Macon, Marion, Marshall, Meigs, Monroe, Moore, Morgan, Obion, Overton, Perry, Pickett, Polk, Putnam, Rhea, Roane, Robertson, Scott, Sequatchie, Sevier, Smith, Stewart, Tipton, Trousdale, Unicoi, Union, Van Buren, Warren, Wayne, Weakley, or White

What about Residential Or Commercial Property Maintenance Codes?

Residential Or Commercial Property Maintenance Codes or Building and Safety Codes are minimum residential or commercial property maintenance requirements. Codes can use to domestic or non-residential residential or commercial properties or both. Codes examinations can occur at any time, though they are most common with brand-new building or renovation. Building Codes assist to guarantee safety within a building. It is very important to have buildings up to code. Landlords are accountable for fulfilling Codes.

All cities in Tennessee have their own codes departments to impose Residential or commercial property Maintenance Codes. Many big county or local government have codes departments. Though, lots of villages and rural locations do not have any standardized minimum residential or commercial property upkeep codes. Several codes departments throughout the state have embraced the International Residential or commercial property Maintenance Code. Codes inspectors may examine electrical, pipes, gas, zoning, and other physical aspects of a home. Contact your regional codes department for details specific to your area.

Often Building Codes will ask if a tenant has actually already informed their property manager about the need for repair and provided the proprietor reasonable time to make the repair work. Afterward, Buiding Codes may carry out an examination. If there is an examination, make sure to ask for a copy of any notes or citations. Keep in mind that Building regulations can just visit homes where the occupant has legal right to permit their see.

What is URLTA?

Tennessee Code Annotated § 66-28 is the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. URLTA just uses in counties of greater than 75,000 population as of the 2010 U.S. Census. For these more populated counties, there are written requirements and defenses to rental arrangements including commitments for maintenance by the property manager to comply with requirements of suitable structure and housing codes materially affecting healthy and security, as listed in 66-28-304.( a).

What are the minimum requirements for rental housing?

The Tennessee Department of Health is accountable for promoting rules for minimum health requirements for rental housing. These guidelines are part of Tennessee Code Annotated § 53-5502 restructured as § 68-111 in Chapter 1200-1-2. The guidelines cover basic devices and centers, light and ventilation, temperature level, and sanitation.

Can I make a protest?

If a rental residential or commercial property violates minimum health requirements it may be unfit for habitation. According to Tennessee Code Annotated § 68-111-101, occupants whose lease is $200 or less weekly may submit a grievance with their local building inspector or county public health department. Complaints need to be filed in composing with your county health department and a copy need to be forwarded by licensed mail to the property owner. A qualifying complaint can result in a home examination. This part of the law does not use to occupants who pay their lease month-to-month or for a term greater than month-to-month. For non-qualifying grievances, other building regulations or ordinances that the building inspector is licensed to implement, may apply to house leased at higher rates.

What if I live in government assisted housing?

The federal government assists low-income families, the senior, and the handicapped to pay for decent, safe, and hygienic housing in the personal market. Participants find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses, and houses. There is an annual Housing Quality Standards (HQS) assessment procedure to guarantee that homes are tidy and safe. Renters with assisted housing, such as Section 8, should begin by talking with the office that issued their rental Housing Choice Voucher (HCV).

The Tennessee Housing Development Agency carries out contract administration for Section 8 residential issues in 76 counties. If the residential or commercial property owner or representative is not satisfying their obligations, TDHA may step in. For more details, call THDA at 1-800-228-THDA (8432) during regular business hours or go to the THDA webpage anytime. Local public housing agencies (PHAs) supply services in the other counties. Some of the regional workplaces are the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, Murfreesboro Housing Authority, Memphis Housing Authority, and Knox County Housing Authority.

Renters who get assistance can call their local U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development office. A number of HUD's programs have particular requirements for housing quality. If your housing is not up to standards, then HUD might intervene to have the landlord make repair work as needed. Tennessee's HUD workplace contact numbers are:

HUD Knoxville Field Office - (865) 545-4370
Jurisdiction: Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Carter, Claiborne, Cocke, Cumberland, Fentress, Grainger, Greene, Grundy, Hamblen, Hamilton, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Loudon, McMinn, Marion, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Pickett, Polk, Roane, Rhea, Scott, Sequatchie, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi, Union, Washington

HUD Memphis Field Office - (901) 544-3367
Jurisdiction: Benton, Carroll, Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Lake, Lauderdale, Madison, McNairy, Obion, Shelby, Tipton, Weakley

HUD Nashville Field Office - (615) 736-5600
Jurisdiction: Bedford, Cannon, Cheatham, Clay, Coffee, Davidson, De Kalb, Dickson, Franklin, Giles, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Jackson, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Macon, Marshall, Maury, Montgomery, Moore, Overton, Perry, Putnam, Robertson, Rutherford, Smith, Stewart, Sumner, Trousdale, Van Buren, Warren, Wayne, White, Williamson, Wilson

Does the USDA assist with tenants in rural locations?

Yes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a rural advancement program. USDA helps with some 360 multi-family residential or commercial properties in Tennessee. If you have a concern about residing in USDA-assisted rural housing you can call your rural development local workplace.

Where can I discover more about healthy housing policy?

Our Healthy Places web page offers more information about the places we live, work and play. Click here to get more information about healthy housing policies.