Ann Arbor ordinance 8:530 currently allows landlords to begin showing or leasing units as early as 70 days (less than 2.5 months) into the current lease. For example, for a lease that begins September 2019, renters are asked to renew in November 2019 until September 2021. This excessively short amount of time allows landlords to pressure renters - who comprise over half of Ann Arbor's population and who are primarily working class people, students, or both - into renewing their leases far sooner than most renters are ready.

The current ordinance negatively impacts renters in a multitude of ways:

-- It gives landlords legal license to bully renters into renewing, allowing landlords to avoid the financial risks of renting by displacing the burden onto renters, who have to choose between making a potentially financially devastating contractual agreement or having secure housing;

-- With most leases signed in November, it makes it nearly impossible for international students to find quality housing if they can’t come to Ann Arbor nearly a full year before they plan to move here, often before they are even admitted to their programs;

-- Early renewal also often forces renters to pay housing deposits almost a full year in advance, which may be particularly difficult for working class renters who cannot afford to let a leasing company hold onto a large deposit for almost two years (and if they make the decision to move, they have to have thousands of dollars to give to two landlords for an entire year).

In short, Ann Arbor’s current rental laws protect the financial security and profits of landlords over and above the well-being of the city’s renters, who constitute more than half of the city’s population. It is high time that Ann Arbor's city councillors, none of whom are renters despite being responsible for representing the interests of all of the city’s renters, start holding landlords accountable to the rental community rather than supporting them in efforts to rack up enormous profits while subjecting the majority to precariousness in our housing and our finances.

We, the undersigned renters and community members of Ann Arbor, call on the Ann Arbor City Council to change City Ordinance 8:350 such that it prohibits landlords from showing or leasing units until 240 days have elapsed for a 1-year lease.