Housing court in Baltimore is 70 years old. As the first of its kind in the nation, it was designed as a space where landlords could be held accountable for safety violations and renters would be able to address problems. It was supposed to lead to a safer city with better housing. But after nearly a century, it’s falling woefully short on its promise. An investigation by The Baltimore Sun shows that Baltimore’s housing court often works against the very group it was designed to protect—tenants. And landlords are routinely not held accountable for failing to meet safety standards or poor living conditions.
A first-of-its-kind computer analysis of more than 5,500 complaints filed by Baltimore tenants from 2010 through November 2016 revealed that judges in rent escrow court tended to favor landlords, even when inspectors found and reported significant code violations: leaking roofs, no heat, infestations of insects or rodents, even suspected lead paint hazards.
When tenants file in rent escrow court, there is a process that then takes place in order for a dispute to be resolved. A city inspector visits the property, then reviews the claim and reports to the court. A judge may then decide to open up an escrow account, meaning that the tenant has the option of paying the rent into the escrow account rather than to the landlord until repairs are completed. Except the investigation found that the judges in Baltimore rarely exercise this option.
They found:
Judges diverted rent payments into escrow accounts less than half as often as they could have, based on inspectors’ findings. Inspectors reported threats to life, health and safety in 1,427 cases, court records show, but judges established accounts in just 702 of them. [...]
Even when accounts were established, judges returned most of the money to landlords when the cases ended. In cases in which inspectors found homes to be illegal or unfit for habitation, judges ultimately awarded 89 percent of the escrow money to the landlords. [...]
Judges routinely require tenants to pay all back rent landlords say is due before their complaints are heard. They do not typically require the landlords to show that they provided a habitable home — the legal basis for charging rent.