Compiled by Dawn Anastasi, RPA Board Member

St. Petersburg, FL -- Effective July 1, a new Florida law forbids municipalities from regulating tenant-landlord relationships, including ordinances that carve out stronger protections for renters. St. Petersburg officials recently began the process of repealing its own Tenant Bill of Rights to comply with state law.

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Los Angeles, CA -- LA tenants have until August 1 to pay 18 months of back rent. 

Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, said tenants have known for nearly three years they would need to repay back rent.

“During that entire time, some have not made any attempts to repay their obligations, and simply have waited around for some miracle to make a large, lump sum payment, which they are unlikely able to do,” Yukelson told the Daily News in an email. “It is time for the city of Los Angeles to stop babysitting these adults.”

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Jersey City, NJ -- A group of landlords wants to overturn Jersey City’s “right-to-counsel” legislation, which would provide free lawyers to renters facing eviction by 2025.

The Jersey City Council passed a pair of ordinances last month guaranteeing low-income tenants free legal representation in housing court, using future developers’ fees to pay for it. On Wednesday, the Jersey City Property Owners’ Association sued the city, claiming the new rules exceeded the city’s taxing authority and its municipal powers conferred by the state.

“It’s a tremendous intrusion into private contractual rights,” said Charles Gormally, an attorney representing the association.

The civil complaint was filed in Hudson County Superior Court and alleges the city is creating a new form of taxation that only benefits a group of private residents: tenants who make 80% or less of the area's median income and are eligible for free counsel.

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