Housing (Landlords)

This Act provides that a landlord may not require a tenant to use a particular renters insurance company as long as the tenant maintains renters insurance according to the terms of the rental agreement.

This Act requires that when all or part of the tenant’s rent is paid from a state fund for reentry services, a landlord must assist the tenant in completing a discharge plan to attempt to provide a warm handoff before terminating the tenant’s lease. This Act also closes a loophole in existing law that allows unlicensed or uncertified operators of residential housing to claim exemption from the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code, including the procedural requirements for an eviction. Existing laws prohibit someone from losing their housing without notice because • A landlord must comply with the notice and judicial procedure under the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code, Part III, Title 25. • Licensed health care providers must provide discharge planning before an individual is required to leave a residential treatment program under § 1127, § 5161, and § 3004J of Title 16. • Certified recovery homes must make a reasonable effort to connect a resident with appropriate services when terminating the resident’s admission agreement under § 2206A of Title 16. Section 1 of this Act closes a loophole in current law that allows some landlords to claim their tenants are excluded under § 5102(1) of Title 25 from the protections required before eviction under the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code without being required to provide discharge planning or connecting the resident with appropriate services. This Act revises 3 of the exclusions by using the modern terms and where possible, the applicable licensing law for this State, to prevent housing providers from claiming exclusion from the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code even if the provider is not licensed or certified to provide services. This Act does not apply to or revise the exclusions to the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code under paragraphs (4) through (6) of § 5102 of Title 25, including the existing exclusion for certified recovery houses. Section 2 of this Act creates new requirements under § 5512A of Title 25 if all or part of a tenant’s rent is paid using money from a State reentry fund. Before or with the first payment, the person responsible for payments from the fund must provide the landlord with an explanation of these requirements, contact information, and the model discharge plan. The Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), in consultation with the Department of Justice (DOJ), must create a model discharge plan. Then, before terminating the tenant’s lease, the landlord must assist the individual in creating a discharge plan that includes shelter or housing and provide notice that the tenant’s lease is being terminated as follows: • To the person making rent payments from the fund. • If the landlord knows that the tenant is under the supervision of the Department of Correction, to the Department of Correction and the local law enforcement agency. If a landlord fails to comply with the discharge planning and notice requirements, the landlord is debarred from receiving payments from any State reentry fund for 1 year. If the landlord is receiving payments from a State reentry fund for any other tenants, those tenants are not responsible for the share of the rent that was paid by the fund and have the option to do any of the following: • Continue the tenancy without payments from the fund. If the tenant chooses to continue their tenancy, the amount of their rent becomes the tenant’s share of the rent, calculated by subtracting the amount paid by the fund from the total rent under the rental agreement. • Terminate the lease immediately. • Terminate the lease with 30 to 60 days notice. These requirements are enforceable by the Department of Justice and also by the Justice of the Peace Court, because the contents of an eviction complaint must include a brief statement of compliance with the requirements under § 5512A(c) and copies of all required notices. Section 3 of this Act is a technical clarification to clarify that “this Code” and “Landlord-Tenant Code” both refer to the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code under Part III of this title. Both “this Code” and “Landlord-Tenant Code” are used throughout Chapter 51 through Chapter 59 of Title 25 as abbreviations of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code and under § 101 of Title 1, “this Code” could also refer to the entire Delaware Code. Section 4 of this Act makes the new requirements for reentry funds under § 5512A of Title 25 applicable to the rental of single rooms in owner-occupied buildings under § 5512 of Title 25. Section 4 also reorganizes the existing language in § 5512 because as 1 sentence, the current language is difficult to understand. This Act takes effect 6 months after enactment to provide time for DHSS and DOJ to develop the model discharge plan and for agencies, including the Department of Correction and local law enforcement agencies, to develop policies and procedures necessary to implement and respond to notification under these requirements. The new requirements under § 5512A of Title 25 apply to rental agreements entered into on or after the effective date of this Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act is known as “The Grace Peterson Act”.

This Act establishes the Rights and Responsibilities Guide for Landlords and Tenants Committee (“Committee”) within the Delaware Real Estate Commission (“Commission”). The Commission is tasked with drafting, maintaining, and distributing a comprehensive, statewide rights & responsibilities guide (“guide”) for landlords and tenants with support from the Committee. This guide will reference responsibilities that a tenant or landlord must follow, including federal, state, county, and municipal requirements. This Act also requires a landlord or real estate service provider to provide the guide to prospective tenants entering a landlord-tenant relationship governed under Part III of Title 25. The guide must also be provided at each time a rental agreement is renewed if the renewal is for a term of 1 or more years. The guide may be provided in electronic or paper format. The guide is deemed a statutorily required form under 24 Del. C. § 2912. Real estate service providers may be subject to discipline for misrepresenting the availability or content of the required form. Additionally, failure to provide the guide when required is deemed an unlawful practice under § 2513 of Title 6 and a violation of Subchapter II of Chapter 25 of Title 6. Section 4 of this Act requires the Commission to provide a report to the General Assembly with findings about what disclosures or documents are required to be made to tenants independent of the guide and whether the Commission recommends other law be changed to incorporate those disclosures and documents into the guide. This Act is effective upon enactment into law and, except for the penalty provisions, is to be implemented the earlier of the following: (1) One year from the date of the Act’s enactment. (2) Notice by the Director of the Division of Professional Regulation published in the Register of Regulations that both of the following have occurred: a. The report required under Section 4 of this Act has been provided to the General Assembly. b. The guide this Act creates has been published by the Delaware Real Estate Commission. Penalty provisions are to be implemented 180 days after the remainder of the Act is implemented. If this Act is implemented before the report under Section 4 of this Act is provided to the General Assembly, the report must be provided to the General Assembly within 180 days after the Act is implemented.

This Act updates the Right to Representation statute by moving certain duties to the office of the State Courts Administrator and clarifies terminology used within the statute.

This Act allows tenants who are being evicted for failure to pay rent to remain in their homes if they pay all amounts owed prior to being evicted. It also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Drafting Manual. This Substitute differs from the original Act by incorporating the changes from Senate Amendment No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 116 which includes the following changes: - Increased the time from 12 to 24 months for the lookback period for restricting the number of times the right of redemption is available to a tenant. - Puts a requirement to proactively file with the court a request for a stay of the writ if payment is made after the writ of possession has been posted. - Makes clear that payment after posting of the writ only stays the writ until the payment has cleared and dismissal is not required until such time. This Substitute also adds the following changes based on further input from stakeholders: - Makes it clear that this Act only applies to evictions based on failure to pay rent. - Clarifies that any rent that is due under the terms of the lease must also be paid, in addition to any demanded past due and per diem rent, for redemption to apply. - Adds language that the landlord may restrict any payments to methods accepted under the terms of the lease, and the landlord may further restrict any payments made after judgment is entered to certified checks or money orders.

This Act aligns Delaware’s non-discrimination laws. Delaware has several broad laws that prohibit discrimination in public accommodations, housing, employment, and insurance but also has many narrow non-discrimination laws that apply to a specific entity, or type of entity, even though a broad law also prohibits discrimination by that entity. This Act aligns the narrower non-discrimination laws with the applicable broad non-discrimination law by also prohibiting discrimination on any other basis protected under the applicable broad law. Adding the reference to the chapter for the applicable broad law includes all protected classes, definitions, and actions that are currently protected under the broad law or that are added to the broad law in the future. This Act does not make any substantive changes to current non-discrimination laws but is necessary because most of the narrow laws do not contain all of the same protected classes as the broad law that also applies or do not include the definitions of classes that are also in the broad law. These inconsistencies could lead to a misunderstanding by someone reading only an incomplete narrow law, and eventually litigation, about what constitutes illegal discrimination by an entity covered by both the narrow and broad laws. For example: • The non-discrimination provision for the Board of Podiatry under § 506(c) of Title 24 does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of the following classes, for which discrimination is prohibited under Chapter 45 of Title 6: age, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. • Only 4 of the 42 chapters in Title 24 establishing professional licensing boards contain a non-discrimination provision, but this does not mean that the other 38 licensing boards are free to discriminate. Aligning these 4 non-discrimination provisions with Chapter 45 of Title 6 clarifies that Chapter 45 of Title 6 also applies to the 38 professional boards that do not have specific non-discrimination provisions. • For merit system state employees, § 5953 of Title 29 only prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and housing status but in addition to these classes, § 711 of Title 19 prohibits any employer in this State, including the State, from discriminating in employment based on age, marital status, color, national origin, or disability. • Most of the narrower non-discrimination laws do not include all of the definitions in the applicable broad law. Adding the reference to the applicable broad law incorporates those definitions into the narrower law. For example: 1. All of Delaware’s non-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination based on race and all of the broad non-discrimination laws define “race” as including traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyle. However, very few of the narrower non-discrimination laws include this definition of “race”. 2. Several narrow non-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity but do not include or specifically reference the definitions of “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” in the applicable broad non-discrimination law. Specifically, this Act revises the following narrow non-discrimination laws to align with the applicable broad non-discrimination law, as follows: To align with the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, Chapter 45 of Title 6, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, age, marital status, creed, religion, color, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin by establishments that offer goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations to the general public, including government agencies: • Transportation networks, § 1917 of Title 2. • Parkland owned by civic associations, § 8110 of Title 9. • Jury service, § 4502 of Title 10. • Private business and trade schools, § 8516 of Title 14. • Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery, § 1204 of Title 20. • Board of Podiatry, § 506 of Title 24. • Board of Chiropractic, § 706 of Title 24. • The Board of Medical Licensure & Discipline, § 1713 of Title 24. • Board of Funeral Services, § 3102 of Title 24. To align with the Delaware Fair Housing Act, Chapter 46 of Title 6, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex, marital status, familial status, source of income, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or housing status in housing offered for sale, rent, or exchange: • Section 4601 of Title 6, because gender identity is missing from the list of classes protected in the purpose section of Chapter 46 even though gender identity is protected under all of the substantive provisions under that chapter. • Recording of deeds, § 9605 of Title 9. • Residential Landlord-Tenant Code, § 5116 of Title 25. To align with Chapter 46 of Title 6, Subsections (a), (b), and (d) are revised to use the term "familial status" because "familial status" is defined in the Delaware Fair Housing Act to mean a household with children. • The definition of “comparable housing” in § 7102 of Title 25 for the conversion of manufactured home communities. To align with the unlawful employment practices in employment under Chapter 7 of Title 19, which prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, marital status, genetic information, color, age, religion, sex including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, housing status, disability, status as a victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, or stalking, or a reproductive health decision: • New Castle County government, § 1183 of Title 9. • Training and apprenticeship programs, § 204 of Title 19. • Merit System of Personnel Administration, § 5953 of Title 29. • Large public works contracts, § 6962 of Title 29. This Act also clarifies that the definition of “place of public accommodation” in § 4502(19) of Title 6 includes entities and services licensed or regulated under Title 5, Banking. This Act does not make any changes to Title 18 for insurance. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Section 1 of this Act makes a pattern or practice of violations by a landlord of a Manufactured Home Community of subchapters I through V of Chapter 70 of Title 25 of the Delaware Code, or a provision of a rental agreement, an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud Act, subchapter II, Chapter 70, of Title 25, under specified circumstances. Section 2 of this Act authorizes the Attorney General to file a petition to establish a receivership of a Manufactured Home Community in a Justice of the Peace Court on specified grounds after notice to the landlord. Section 3 of this Act requires the Justice of the Peace Court to send written notice to the Director of Consumer Protection at the Department of Justice within 10 days of its receipt of a petition for tenants’ receivership under Title 25 of the Delaware Code, Sections 5901 or 7061, except in those cases where the Attorney General files the petition.

This Act is a Substitute for SB 34 and differs from SB 34 in the following ways: • Moves the provision for lease termination to purchase a home from § 5314(b) of Title 25 to a new subsection (c) under §5314 of Title 25. • Does not make technical changes to § 5314(b) of Title 25. • Requires the tenant to give the landlord a signed agreement of sale at the same time the tenant gives the landlord notice of early lease termination to purchase a home. • Changes the notice a tenant is required to give for terminating a lease to purchase a home from 30 days to 60 days. • Clearly states that the lease terminates after the 60-day period. • Allows the landlord and tenant to agree to extend the 60-day period by signing a written agreement. • References that § 5514(c)(3) allows a landlord to deduct reasonable expenses, incurred in rerenting after early lease termination, from the tenant’s security deposit. This Act allows a tenant to terminate a rental agreement early if purchasing a home by providing 60 days' written notice to the landlord, along with a copy of the agreement of sale. The 60-day period begins on the first day of the month after the day the notice is given, but the landlord and tenant may agree to extend the lease termination date past the 60-day period by written agreement signed by the landlord and tenant. This Act also references that a landlord may deducting reasonable expenses incurred in rerenting the premises, up to 1 month’s rent, from the tenant’s security deposit as provided under § 5514(c)(3) of Title 25.