Delaware General Assembly

Lieu/Substituted 1/6/22

The General Assembly has ended, the current status is the final status.

SS 1 for SB 167 w/ SA 1

6/3/21

Lockman

Sen. Townsend

Rep. Baumbach

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE LANDLORD MITIGATION FUND.

This Act seeks to increase the supply of homes available to rent for low-income individuals and families by providing incentives to landlords who participate in a government-sponsored housing choice voucher program. To that end, this Act creates a Landlord Mitigation Fund, administered by the Delaware State Housing Authority ("DSHA"), to provide payment for certain types of claims for payment or reimbursement for certain expenses incurred by participating landlords. This Act limits the amount that may be claimed based on the type of claim. For claims for payment of a security deposit, or for lost rental income due to delays in the public housing authority inspection process, or the tenant vacating the tenancy without notice, the maximum amount that may be claimed is 1 month's rent. For claims seeking reimbursement for damages or for improvements required by a public housing authority inspection, the maximum amount that may be claimed is $2,000. The maximum amount of payment that may be claimed per tenancy is $5,000. The DSHA has sole discretion to determine payment from the Landlord Mitigation Fund. Payment is subject to the availability of funds in the Landlord Mitigation Fund. If the Landlord Mitigation Fund is insufficient to pay eligible claims, the DSHA will create a waitlist and distribute funds in the order claims are received. A landlord who has received payment from the Landlord Mitigation Fund is prohibited from taking legal action against, or pursuing collection from, a tenant for damages attributable to the same tenancy. When a landlord has been paid under this Act for lost rent due to the tenant vacating the tenancy without notice, or reimbursed for damages under this Act, the tenant for whom payment was made is responsible for repaying to DSHA the full or a partial amount of the assistance paid to the landlord. Amounts repaid by the tenant are deposited in the Landlord Mitigation Fund. The tenant may seek waiver of the requirement to repay for good cause.

N/A

N/A

Takes effect upon being signed into law

N/A

View HTML View PDF