Thread by @PDXTenantsUnite

📢📣📢📣 ALERT! ALERT! Attention ALL Renters! 📢📣📢📣

If you have lived in your place for more than a year, do NOT sign (or renew) a lease! You are only fully protected from a no-cause eviction if you are month to month.

Under the new law (Senate Bill 608) a lease offers you **less** protection than month-to-month, so before signing that lease, think twice! Keep reading for more info, and please share widely so we can get the information out:

If you have lived in your home for more than a year a landlord can no longer give you a no-cause eviction (YAY). 🥳

They can only terminate your tenancy with a for-cause eviction (which gives due process and an ability to cure the problem and stay) OR for a "Landlord based reason", like selling the unit, moving back in, converting to an AirBnB (yes — the law allows that).

HOWEVER, if you are in a lease that is coming to an end, the landlord doesn't have to give you a for-cause eviction notice or have a landlord based reason, they can decline to renew your lease if you have 3 lease violation *warnings* in a 12-month period.

Too many potted plants on your balcony? ❌ Strike 1.
Towels hung up to dry on your balcony? ❌ Strike 2.
Listen to music too loud once? ❌ Strike 3.

So now, instead of due process or a "landlord based reason" they can just selectively enforce the 1000s of rules in your lease in order to get you out.

Your landlord loves leases because they have guaranteed rent for the lease, unless you break it and then they get 1.5x the rent for a lease break fee.

And now, it also allows them to get around the new tenant protections by citing you for every little thing, just in case they want to kick you out at the end.

If you're month to month they have to go all the way through the for-cause eviction process, which would give you a chance to take the pots and towels off your deck and turn your music down. In a lease, you don't get the chance.

So basically leases now offer your LESS security, and this 3-strike loophole will ABSOLUTELY be weaponized against tenants, especially against vulnerable tenants.

Your landlord cannot force you to sign or renew a lease now, if you've lived there more than a year.

They can make month-to-month more expensive, but "only" by 10.3% (if your rent hasn't already gone up in the previous 12 months), which is probably worth the extra security ... if you can afford it. ☹️

Please share WIDELY — help a renter out! We're starting to hear from LOTS of renters whose landlords are sending them letters demanding they convert to a lease!