How is renting different from home ownership? What are my responsibilities as a tenant? 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 renter? Fact sheets for occupants and renters 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 a formal complaint? What if I reside in federal government assisted housing? Does the USDA assist with occupants in backwoods? Where can I find out more about healthy housing policy? Additional resources

* * * Our Healthy Homes personnel are not doctors or lawyers. The information on our Healthy Homes Website does not offer medical or legal guidance. This details is not a replacement for visiting your physician or for seeking advice from with a legal representative about your particular scenario. * * *

3 Actions a Concerned Renter Should Do:

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

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

3. Read your lease. Whatever is written in the lease is a legal contract. Both renter and landlord have responsibilities.

It is likely prohibited for a property manager to strike back versus a renter who files a problem, calls Buiding Codes, or takes legal action. Changing locks, turning off energies, appearing typically, or wrongly raising lease can be retaliation.

How is leasing various from own a home?

Renting is various from home ownership because the occupant need to rely on somebody else to make repair work. The renter might not have the ability to make modifications to the home without permission. A tenant has both rights and responsibilities. Renting can be a great alternative for lots of people to preserve a healthy home environment, both inside your home and outdoors. Whether you lease a house, house, duplex, mobile home or cabin you can keep the seven healthy homes concepts. Bear in mind that excellent health starts in your home.

What are my responsibilities as a renter?

Renters are accountable for tidiness and security. You might rent without any official arrangement, or you might have a lease contract. The most typical type of occupant in Tennessee is an occupant who signs a lease agreement to pay lease monthly throughout the year. Renters may be asked to provide a security deposit. Lease arrangements are legally binding contracts. You are responsible for following the terms of your lease. Some lease agreements have addendums such as pet policies, bug control agreements or for reporting water damage. You are accountable for: paying your rent 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 trash, and following your proprietor's guidelines. If you break your lease, then it might become a legal concern.

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

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

There are eight standard concepts to keeping a healthy home.

1. Keep it Dry. - Damp homes offer a good environment for mites, roaches, rodents and molds.

1. Keep it Clean. - Clean homes help reduce pest problems and direct exposure to pollutants.
2. Keep it Pest-Free. - Exposure to mice and cockroaches might increase asthma attacks. Improper pesticide treatments for pest infestations can intensify health issue, since pesticide residues in homes can present health risks.
3. Keep it Safe. - The bulk of children's injuries take place in the home. Falls are the most frequent reason for domestic injuries to kids, followed by injuries from things in the home, burns, and poisonings.
4. Keep it Contaminant-Free. - Avoid exposure to lead, radon, carbon monoxide gas, pesticides, asbestos and ecological tobacco smoke. Bear in mind exposure is frequently greater indoors.
5. Keep it Ventilated. - Studies have shown increasing fresh air in a home improves respiratory health.
6. Keep it Maintained. - Poorly-maintained homes are at danger of being unhealthy.
7. Keep it Thermally Controlled. - Houses that do not keep appropriate temperature levels may position the safety of locals at increased risk 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 a problem maintaining any of these principles, other parts of this website will know and resources to help 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 duty to make repairs. Read your rental lease contract. Comply with any requirements for tidiness or safety. Report any needed repair work to the landlord as they occur. Putting your issues in composing is best. This produces a record of your concerns. Repairs to your rental home need to be made in a sensible quantity of time. The amount of time may be noted in your lease.
   
   If your property owner has not made repair work in a reasonable amount of time, you might require to communicate more straight, such as with extra written problems or a face-to-face conference. If your property owner continues to neglect your issues, you may require to pursue legal action.
   
   Disputes in between a proprietor and a tenant are civil issues. Most proprietor and tenant issues are beyond the authority of the Health Department. These concerns would be ruled on by a civil court judge analyzing the law. There are some programs that support tenants.
   
   What are my rights as an occupant?
   
   According to the Legal Aid Society, as a renter you deserve to a habitable place and to live in harmony. Your rights as a renter may differ depending on which county you reside in. The Legal Aid Society has a useful truth sheet to assist you understand your rights as a renter. How to contact the Legal Aid Society or the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services is listed below.
   
   If your rental home requires an emergency repair work to keep it healthy, such as a repair work of the heat, gas, lights, water, sewage, pipes or a/c, you ought to alert your property owner right now.
   
   If the requirement for repair in not an emergency, then 2 week is typically thought about as a sensible quantity of time for the property manager to make repairs. Hopefully, the majority of repairs will be made rather after a property manager is warned. Use your regular technique of reporting requirements for repair such as a site, phone call, text, or office visit. Put something into composing to record when you made the proprietor familiar with the need for repair.
   
   In some counties you can use a few of your rent cash to make these immediate repairs. If the problem was your fault, you might have to assist spend for the repairs.
   
   You can not be displaced of your rental home. You can not be forced out without notice. The proprietor can not change the locks or shut down your energies to make you leave. The majority of the time, a landlord needs to go to court before evicting you. If you did something unsafe or threatening, the proprietor only requires to give you three (3) days to leave. If you did not pay rent or broke your lease arrangement, you may be given a thirty (30) day observe to vacate. If you have legal questions about housing, you need to seek advice from a lawyer or legal services.
   
   The Tennessee Alliance for Legal Serices has a HELP4TN website, chatbot, and telephone to assist people who need assist with their legal concerns. If you do not have your own attorney, this is a good website to begin.
   
   If you certify based upon income or help status, the Legal Aid Society may be able to help. Remember, Legal Aid has a client waiting list and rarely will cases take place quickly. Contact the office near you for additional information.
   
   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 created these fact sheets to help you understand your rights and responsibilities as an occupant. Click the left image for counties of 75,000 or more population and the right image for smaller 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 standards. Codes can apply to domestic or non-residential residential or commercial properties or both. Codes inspections can occur at any time, though they are most typical with new construction or remodelling. Building regulations help to make sure security within a building. It is necessary to have structures 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 city governments have codes . Though, lots of small towns and backwoods do not have any standardized minimum residential or commercial property maintenance codes. Several codes departments throughout the state have actually embraced the International Residential or commercial property Maintenance Code. Codes inspectors may examine electrical, pipes, gas, zoning, and other physical elements of a home. Contact your regional codes department for info particular to your location.
   
   Often Building Codes will ask if an occupant has actually currently notified their proprietor about the requirement for repair work and offered the property owner affordable time to make the repair work. Afterward, Buiding Codes might perform an inspection. If there is an examination, make certain to ask for a copy of any notes or citations. Remember that Building Codes can only check out homes where the renter has legal right to allow their check out.
   
   What is URLTA?
   
   Tennessee Code Annotated § 66-28 is the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. URLTA just uses in counties of higher than 75,000 population as of the 2010 U.S. Census. For these more inhabited counties, there are written requirements and defenses to rental arrangements including obligations for upkeep by the property manager to comply with requirements of relevant structure and housing codes materially affecting healthy and security, as noted in 66-28-304.( a).
   
   What are the minimum requirements for rental housing?
   
   The Tennessee Department of Health is responsible for promoting rules for minimum health standards for rental housing. These guidelines are part of Tennessee Code Annotated § 53-5502 restructured as § 68-111 in Chapter 1200-1-2. The rules cover fundamental devices and facilities, light and ventilation, temperature level, and sanitation.
   
   Can I make an official problem?
   
   If a rental residential or commercial property breaks 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 might file a grievance with their regional structure inspector or county public health department. Complaints require to be submitted in composing with your county health department and a copy must be forwarded by certified mail to the landlord. A qualifying complaint can result in a home examination. This part of the law does not apply to occupants who pay their lease month-to-month or for a term higher than month-to-month. For non-qualifying complaints, other building codes or ordinances that the building inspector is licensed to enforce, might be relevant to house rented at greater rates.
   
   What if I live in federal government assisted housing?
   
   The federal government helps low-income families, the senior, and the handicapped to pay for decent, safe, and hygienic housing in the private market. Participants find their own housing, consisting of single-family homes, townhouses, and houses. There is a yearly Housing Quality Standards (HQS) examination treatment to guarantee that homes are tidy and safe. Renters with assisted housing, such as Section 8, need to start by talking with the workplace that issued their rental Housing Choice Voucher (HCV).
   
   The Tennessee Housing Development Agency performs agreement administration for Section 8 property issues in 76 counties. If the residential or commercial property owner or representative is not fulfilling their responsibilities, TDHA may intervene. For more details, call THDA at 1-800-228-THDA (8432) throughout normal service hours or check out the THDA website anytime. Local public housing agencies (PHAs) offer services in the other counties. Some of the local offices are the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, Murfreesboro Housing Authority, Memphis Housing Authority, and Knox County Housing Authority.
   
   Renters who get support can contact their local U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development office. Many of HUD's programs have specific requirements for housing quality. If your housing is not up to requirements, then HUD may step in to have the proprietor make repair work as essential. Tennessee's HUD office 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 occupants in backwoods?
   
   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 question about living in USDA-assisted rural housing you can contact your rural development local workplace.
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   Where can I discover more about healthy housing policy?
   
   Our Healthy Places webpage offers more information about the locations we live, work and play. Click on this link to find out more about healthy housing policies.
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