General Assembly makes Tennessee’s eviction laws tougher on tenants

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee enters the House chambers and greets Lt. Gov. Randy McNally for Lee's sixth State of the State address. (Photo: John Partipilo)

This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Subscribe to their newsletter here.

Tenants generally don’t stand much of a chance in eviction court in Shelby County.

They’re rarely represented by a lawyer, and most of the General Sessions Civil judges overseeing cases don’t take the time to explain what’s going on.

One of the few rights tenants have is to delay their case for 15 days — either by requesting a “continuance” or by “disagreeing” with the charge that they owe money — if it’s their first time in court for that specific eviction.

t just shortens the whole timeline in which a person can lose their home. Things (can now) happen very, very quickly.

– Brian Rees, The Works

During this delay, tenants can come up with the money they owe, work out a deal with their landlord, hire a lawyer or find a new apartment. It’s an important enough right that explaining it to tenants was one of the key ways Shelby County said it hoped to deploy a recent $250,000 grant.

The Tennessee General Assembly just cut this buffer down to seven days. The new law will take effect July 1.

“It just shortens the whole timeline in which a person can lose their home,” said Brian Rees, a staff attorney at The Works Inc. nonprofit who has represented hundreds of tenants in eviction proceedings in recent years. “Things (can now) happen very, very quickly.”

During the assembly’s recently completed legislative session, it also shut down another attempt by the City of Memphis and Democrat Rep. Dwayne Thompson of Cordova to create a registry of all the city’s rental housing. However, Thompson was able to pass a “backup” bill meant to help tenants reach their landlords with maintenance requests — though enforcement of it may prove.

Less protection for thousands in Shelby County

In a sparsely populated room at the Hickory Hill Community Center in mid-April, Judge Deborah Henderson was quite candid with the renters gathered to learn about the eviction process.

House Bill 2267, which cut tenants’ right to a continuance in half, hadn’t yet been signed by Gov. Bill Lee. If the governor signed it, Henderson said, it would have “devastating” consequences for renters.

To Henderson, who judges thousands of eviction cases per year, the only explanation for such action was landlord lobbying. The Tennessee Association of Realtors is the sixth largest spender on Tennessee politics, according to the Tennessee Lookout’s database, having spent $6.5 million on lobbying, campaign donations and other political expenditures since 2009.

“Landlords have always had a very strong lobbying group,” she said.

MLK50: Justice Through Journalism could not reach the bill’s primary sponsor in the House, Rep. Clark Boyd, a Lebanon Republican, through his official email address or the House Republican Caucus’ press secretary. Sen. Art Swann, a Maryville Republican who sponsored the legislation in the Senate, provided MLK50 with a statement but did not respond to follow-up questions.

In the statement, Swann said the bill will help landlords free up apartments more quickly for the thousands of Tennesseeans seeking a home. He also said it would help the apartment industry develop new apartments, but he didn’t make clear how it would.

The Tennessee Association of Realtors has been Swann’s top funder since the start of 2009, according to the Tennessee Lookout, giving him $18,750. It has also given Boyd $11,500 since 2009, making it his No. 6 funder.

The bill sailed through the House and the Senate, generating little discussion in committee or before the full bodies. In the House, it passed on the consent agenda, meaning no legislator objected to it. In the Senate, it passed by a vote of 27-3.

The vote will impact thousands of renters in Shelby County each year. In 2023, about 31,000 evictions were filed here. Most of these renters did not receive the two-week continuance, either because they didn’t show up at court, had already worked something out with their landlord, didn’t know to ask for it or chose not to take advantage of it. But, in a sample of 1,090 recent eviction cases, MLK50 found that 145 (about 13%) appeared on the court’s schedule for a second time two weeks after they were initially scheduled — meaning these renters were likely granted the two-week extension they were entitled to.

While the difference of a week may not seem like much, Rees said it can really matter for these renters since the pathways to avoiding eviction can take time to figure out.

Often, landlords will either stop pursuing an eviction judgment or not enforce one they’ve received if the tenant catches up on rent. Starting July 1, renters will have less time to do so — whether through personal loans, family loans, work, rental assistance programs or other means — which in turn could increase the likelihood they lose their homes.

Additionally, programs designed to help low-income renters, such as legal aid or rental assistance, often take days or weeks to approve requests. And if renters aren’t able to get help, the apartment complexes they turn to for shelter may not be quick to process their applications.

“It’s disheartening to see them make a change that will affect families who are struggling,” Rees said.

What happened to the rental registry?

For years, City of Memphis leaders and local housing advocates have sought a rental registry — a tool designed to help cities keep track of out-of-town landlords who are violating local ordinances.

In 2021, the City Council was poised to create one before the General Assembly preempted it, despite one already existing in Nashville.

This session, Thompson thought he had a shot at amending state law to let Memphis join its peer in Middle Tennessee — until he realized the Tennessee Association of Realtors was dead set against him, no matter what compromises he offered them.

“(TAR) has the connection with a lot of legislators, especially on the commerce committee, where this was going to be,” Thompson said. “(And) they were just ironclad.”

TAR representatives did not return a pair of phone calls from MLK50.

The bill failed to pass the House Commerce Committee’s Business and Utilities Subcommittee, which is chaired by Boyd. During the subcommittee hearing, Shelby County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon and City of Memphis Division of Public Works director Robert Knecht endorsed it and two landlord representatives spoke against it.

Thompson told the subcommittee that registration had worked well for Nashville but failed to convince them. Rep. Pat Marsh, a Shelbyville Republican said he opposed the bill because he doubted bad landlords would comply with it, making it ineffective.

“How are you going to find the (bad actors)? It looks to me like the good people will do it but the bad people aren’t going to change,” Marsh said during the subcommittee hearing.

Given TAR’s opposition and the legislature itself having recently moved “much farther to the right,” in his experience, Thompson said a Shelby County rental registry is “probably not in the cards, for several years anyway.” Though he’s not running for reelection, he’s hopeful whoever succeeds him will be able to find other ways to help cities deal with slumlords.

Thompson was able to pass one bill this year he thinks will help tenants.

Assuming the bill is signed by Lee, it will require landlords to provide tenants with a phone number or online portal they can use to make maintenance requests. While most landlords do this already, Thompson said he’s heard from tenants who tell him they have no way of contacting their landlord or property manager about maintenance issues.

The bill doesn’t address the problem of landlords who won’t answer their phones or otherwise respond to maintenance requests. And, to get the bill passed, Thompson had to remove the fine he proposed for landlords who failed to follow the law.

Still, Rees sees the legislation’s passage as a win. Because even if landlords aren’t responsive, it will provide tenants with proof they’re requesting maintenance through the proper channels — proof lawyers like Rees could theoretically use in their defense.

“I really am happy to see that pass,” Rees said. “I think it’s important that tenants do have good quality contact information for their property manager or owner.”

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