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How is leasing various from home ownership? What are my duties 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 an occupant? Fact sheets for renters and tenants throughout COVID-19 What about Residential Or Commercial Property Maintenance Codes? What is URLTA? What are the minimum requirements for rental housing? Can I make an official complaint? What if I live in government assisted housing? Does the USDA assist with tenants in backwoods? Where can I find out more about healthy housing policy? Additional resources

* * * Our Healthy Homes staff are not medical professionals or lawyers. The details on our Healthy Homes Website does not offer medical or legal suggestions. This details is not a replacement for visiting your doctor or for speaking with a legal representative about your specific circumstance. * * *

3 Actions a Concerned Renter Should Do:

1. Put everything in writing. Take pictures and videos. Save e-mails, texts, letters, and voicemails. Write a calendar of occasions.

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

3. Read your lease. Whatever is written in the lease is a legal agreement. Both renter and proprietor have duties.

It is likely unlawful for a proprietor to retaliate versus a renter who submits a problem, calls Buiding Codes, or takes legal action. Changing locks, shutting down utilities, appearing typically, or inappropriately raising lease can be retaliation.

How is leasing different from own a home?

Renting is different from home ownership because the renter should count on somebody else to make repair work. The tenant might not have the ability to make modifications to the home without authorization. A tenant has both rights and responsibilities. Renting can be an excellent alternative for many individuals to keep a healthy home environment, both inside and outdoors. Whether you lease a house, home, duplex, mobile home or cabin you can keep the seven healthy homes concepts. Keep in mind that excellent health starts at home.

What are my responsibilities as a renter?

Renters are accountable for tidiness and security. You might rent without any official arrangement, or you may have a lease agreement. The most typical kind of tenant in Tennessee is a tenant who signs a lease contract to pay rent each month throughout the year. Renters might be asked to offer a security deposit. Lease contracts are legally binding agreements. You are accountable for following the regards to your lease. Some lease agreements have addendums such as pet policies, insect control contracts or for reporting water damage. You are accountable for: paying your lease on time, paying any late costs, keeping the location clean and safe, not letting anyone else damage it, not breaking the law, dealing with your garbage, and following your property owner's guidelines. If you break your lease, then it might become a legal issue.

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 8 basic principles to preserving a healthy home.

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

1. Keep it Clean. - Clean homes help in reducing bug problems and direct exposure to impurities.
2. Keep it Pest-Free. - Exposure to mice and cockroaches may increase asthma attacks. Improper pesticide treatments for insect problems can worsen illness, because pesticide residues in homes can posture health risks.
3. Keep it Safe. - Most of children's injuries occur in the home. Falls are the most regular reason for domestic injuries to kids, followed by injuries from objects in the home, burns, and poisonings.
4. Keep it Contaminant-Free. - Avoid direct exposure to lead, radon, carbon monoxide, pesticides, asbestos and environmental tobacco smoke. Remember exposure is typically higher indoors.
5. Keep it Ventilated. - Studies have actually shown increasing fresh air in a home enhances respiratory health.
6. Keep it Maintained. - Poorly-maintained homes are at threat of being unhealthy.
7. Keep it Thermally Controlled. - Houses that do not keep adequate temperatures may position the security of citizens at increased threat from direct exposure to severe heat or cold.
   
   If you utilize these concepts as a guide, you can maintain a safe and healthy home. If you are having an issue preserving any of these concepts, other parts of this website will have information 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 duty to fix the problem or it might be your property manager's obligation to make repairs. Read your rental lease agreement. Adhere to any requirements for cleanliness or safety. Report any required repair work to the property manager as they develop. Putting your concerns in composing is finest. This produces a record of your concerns. Repairs to your rental home need to be made in a reasonable quantity of time. The quantity of time may be listed in your lease.
   
   If your property manager has actually not made repair work in a reasonable quantity of time, you may need to communicate more directly, such as with extra composed complaints or an in person conference. If your proprietor continues to overlook your concerns, you may require to pursue legal action.
   
   Disputes between a landlord and a tenant are civil problems. Most proprietor and renter issues are outside of 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 a tenant?
   
   According to the Legal Aid Society, as a tenant you deserve to a habitable place and to live peacefully. 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 an occupant. How to contact the Legal Aid Society or the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services is noted below.
   
   If your rental home requires an emergency situation repair to keep it healthy, such as a repair work of the heat, gas, lights, water, sewage, pipes or cooling, you ought to notify your landlord right now.
   
   If the requirement for repair in not an emergency situation, then 2 week is generally thought about as a reasonable amount of time for the landlord to make repair work. Hopefully, most repair work will be made much quicker after a property owner is made conscious. Use your routine approach of reporting needs for repair such as a website, telephone call, text message, or office go to. Put something into composing to record when you made the proprietor conscious of the need for repair.
   
   In some counties you can utilize a few of your lease cash to make these immediate repair work. If the issue was your fault, you might need to assist spend for the repair work.
   
   You can not be displaced of your rental home. You can not be evicted without notification. The property owner can not change the locks or shut down your utilities to make you leave. Most of the time, a landlord needs to go to court before evicting you. If you did something unsafe or threatening, the landlord just needs to provide you 3 (3) days to move out. If you did not pay rent or broke your lease agreement, you might be provided a thirty (30) day discover to leave. If you have legal concerns 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 individuals who require assist with their legal concerns. If you do not have your own lawyer, this is an excellent website to begin.
   
   If you certify based on income or assistance status, the Legal Aid Society may be able to help. Remember, Legal Aid has a customer waiting list and rarely will cases happen quickly. Contact the workplace near you to learn more.
   
   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 produced these truth 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 upkeep standards. Codes can apply to residential or non-residential residential or commercial properties or both. Codes evaluations can take place at any time, though they are most common with brand-new construction or remodelling. Building Codes assist to ensure security within a building. It is very important to have structures up to code. Landlords are accountable for satisfying Codes.
   
   All urban areas in Tennessee have their own codes departments to enforce Residential or commercial property Maintenance Codes. Many big county or city governments have codes departments. Though, many villages and backwoods do not have any standardized minimum residential or commercial property maintenance codes. Several codes departments across the state have actually adopted the International Residential or commercial property Maintenance Code. Codes inspectors might examine electrical, plumbing, gas, zoning, and other physical aspects of a home. Contact your local codes department for information particular to your place.
   
   Often Building regulations will ask if an occupant has already informed their proprietor about the need for repair and provided the property owner time to make the repair. Afterward, Buiding Codes may perform an assessment. If there is an assessment, make sure to request a copy of any notes or citations. Bear in mind that Building regulations can just check out homes where the tenant has legal right to allow their visit.
   
   What is URLTA?
   
   Tennessee Code Annotated § 66-28 is the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. URLTA only uses in counties of higher than 75,000 population since the 2010 U.S. Census. For these more inhabited counties, there are written requirements and defenses to rental contracts including commitments for maintenance by the property manager to adhere to requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially impacting healthy and security, as listed in 66-28-304.( a).
   
   What are the minimum standards for rental housing?
   
   The Tennessee Department of Health is accountable for promulgating guidelines for minimum health standards for rental housing. These guidelines become part of Tennessee Code Annotated § 53-5502 rearranged as § 68-111 in Chapter 1200-1-2. The rules cover standard equipment and centers, light and ventilation, temperature level, and sanitation.
   
   Can I make an official complaint?
   
   If a rental residential or commercial property breaks minimum health requirements it might be unfit for habitation. According to Tennessee Code Annotated § 68-111-101, renters whose lease is $200 or less weekly might file a problem with their regional building inspector or county public health department. Complaints need to be filed in composing with your county health department and a copy must be forwarded by licensed mail to the landlord. A certifying complaint can result in a home investigation. This part of the law does not use to renters who pay their lease regular monthly or for a term higher than monthly. For non-qualifying complaints, other structure codes or ordinances that the building inspector is licensed to impose, may be appropriate to residential home leased at higher rates.
   
   What if I live in federal government assisted housing?
   
   The federal government assists low-income families, the senior, and the handicapped to manage good, safe, and sanitary housing in the personal market. Participants find their own housing, consisting of single-family homes, townhouses, and apartment or condos. There is an annual Housing Quality Standards (HQS) assessment procedure to make sure that homes are tidy and safe. Renters with assisted housing, such as Section 8, need to begin by talking with the workplace that released their rental Housing Choice Voucher (HCV).
   
   The Tennessee Housing Development Agency carries out contract administration for Section 8 property concerns in 76 counties. If the residential or commercial property owner or agent is not satisfying their obligations, TDHA might intervene. To learn more, call THDA at 1-800-228-THDA (8432) during normal business hours or check out the THDA website anytime. Local public housing firms (PHAs) offer services in the other counties. Some of the regional offices are the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, Murfreesboro Housing Authority, Memphis Housing Authority, and Knox County Housing Authority.
   
   Renters who receive 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 standards, then HUD might step in to have the proprietor make repairs as necessary. Tennessee's HUD workplace 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 tenants in backwoods?
   
   Yes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a rural advancement program. USDA assists 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 call your rural advancement regional office.
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   Where can I discover more about healthy housing policy?
   
   Our Healthy Places website supplies more information about the places we live, work and play. Click on this link for more information about healthy housing policies.