Two members of the Harford County Council are looking to propose legislation that would give the county more power to hold rental property owners accountable as livability complaints from residents rise.
These frustrations have prompted members Nolanda Robert and Jacob Bennett — both Democrats whose districts primarily cover lower-income communities in southern Harford County — to look into implementing a rent registry.
Robert and Bennett hope a registry would provide the county with the power to hold rental property owners accountable — similar to what has been achieved in Baltimore County and other areas.
“As a council member, one of the most common forms of constituent care work I do is issues around bad living conditions for tenants,” Bennett said. “I think it is important that we have some sort of mechanism for keeping track of where frequent complaints and violations are happening.”
Once Bennett and Robert craft the legislation for a rent registry, the bill would have to proceed as regular County Council legislation, getting vetted via a public hearing, then voted on by the rest of the council. If passed, County Executive Bob Cassilly would have to sign the bill as well before it became official.
Cassilly said he would not comment on the bill, since its language has not been officially drafted.
Many of the complaints are made by residents who use Department of Housing and Urban Development vouchers, a federal program that helps low-income families, older adults and people with disabilities afford housing. Residents in some Harford County HUD-accepting housing developments have complained of mold, pests, flooding, ceiling collapses, unaddressed maintenance requests and more.
Harford apartment-dwellers say mold, rats, poor living conditions being ignored
Some residents who have submitted complaints have been met with retaliation from property managers, ranging from being banned from rental offices to facing evictions.
A registry would require owners to pay a fee to have their rental properties registered with the county and undergo mandatory routine inspections, with stricter consequences for properties in poor condition.
The impact of a rent registry
Nearly a dozen Maryland counties, along with Annapolis and Baltimore City, have rent registries.
Peter Gutwald, Baltimore County’s director of inspections, licensing and permitting, said that county’s registry, which has been in place since 1997, requires property owners to pay a fee for a license and undergo inspections every three years by a state-licensed inspector.
Gutwald said the rent registry has helped keep neighborhoods throughout the county safe, and has increased quality of life for many residents.
“I will tell you, the rental license is a good thing,” Gutwald said.
To date, Baltimore County has about 23,000 active rental licenses, which does not reflect individual apartment units because apartment complexes are under one license. All units are overseen by a roughly five-person staff within the county’s Department of Inspections, Licensing and Permitting.
If a property is found to be in violation of Baltimore County’s livability code, the county can fine owners $200 per day, revoke or suspend the property owner’s rental licenses, or take other disciplinary action at the department’s discretion. The registry generated $575,000 in revenue for the county last year.
In Harford County, the only mechanism for oversight over rental properties is through the county’s livability code, which sets basic guidelines for property upkeep and other provisions.
Per the code, the Harford County’s Department of Inspections, Licensing and Permitting is tasked with investigating issues, but only after residents submit a complaint. If the county finds an infraction, officials have the authority to issue civil citations to owners, not exceeding $1,000 for each infraction.
In the past, county officials have said their hands are tied when addressing livability complaints since the process is largely reactionary and dull in terms of disciplining owners who fail to address issues.
“When we passed the livability code, part of the hope is that that would lead to better living conditions for our renters,” Bennett said. “Obviously, we just haven’t taken enough steps forward.”
Rent registry and HUD housing
HUD housing is inspected by the federal government every one to three years, depending on a property’s inspection score. Though counties do not have direct oversight of HUD properties, a rent registry could require these properties to be registered with the county, which would subject them to penalties if local inspections discover problems.
Gutwald noted that, similar to Harford County, Baltimore County has received complaints about HUD properties, most notably at Lakeside Homes in Lansdowne, which became the center of an ultimately settled lawsuit after years of tenant complaints.
Gutwald said that through the power given to the county through the rent registry, Baltimore County officials were able to effectively collaborate with HUD to remove the property manager, and address the building issues in early October 2024.
“That property turned around big-time,” Gutwald said.
Harford’s history with rent registry legislation
Rent registry legislation in Harford County has faced strong opposition in the past.
The anticipated proposal from Robert and Bennett will be the third time a registry has been posed to the Harford County Council. The two prior times were in 2012 and 2014, and both of those bills received intense pushback from residents about the possible cost and impact the bills were perceived to have on the county’s rental properties.
Noting the scrutiny rent registry legislation faced in prior years, Robert and Bennett said they are taking a thoughtful approach to the legislation.
“I think there should be inspections done, but what does that look like? Annual inspections?” Robert said. “Regardless, I think the issue is that property owners and management companies need to be held accountable.”
Robert noted that she believes there are rental property owners who provide great housing for tenants and said her vision for a rent registry would have minimal impact on those property owners.
The council members are still working to identify and fine-tune the details of the legislation, specifically focusing on preventing unnecessary costs for taxpayers and unwarranted penalties for property owners. A timeline for when the legislation would be introduced to the County Council is unknown.
“There is a lot of people on the council that know the people that this impacts personally, and I think that allows for us to have a different conversation legislatively because it’s not a hypothetical issue to the members of our council — it is something that we see every day in real life,” Bennett said.
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