Stronger landlord laws will soon be enforced in Little Rock to safeguard renters

Little Rock, Arkansas – The Little Rock Board of Directors is about to implement stricter regulations for landlords. This is part of an ongoing effort to improve building structures and make sure they follow codes, which will ultimately protect renters’ rights.

Position 9 – At Large City Director, Antwan Phillips, states that this plan has been in the works for a year. Its objective is to ensure that renters have better living conditions by establishing a user-friendly section of the city website where you can enter the details of your unit and access information.

“This has been a process for at least a year or so where we have been trying to figure out the best way to protect tenants in the city of Little Rock. Under Arkansas state law there are a lot of limitations on what we can do to protect tenants, but we wanted to make sure we did, as the city of Little Rock, as the capital city of the state of Arkansas that we were doing all that we could to protect tenant rights. So last night there were ordinance and a couple of resolutions that goes a long way to promoting tenant education about what their rights are and providing new enforcement mechanisms against landlords who do not make sure that their apartment complexes are up to code.”

According to Phillips, Little Rock is now home to the greatest concentration of renters in the state as a result of an increase in rental tenants.

“In Little Rock, we have 45% renters, so we have a higher number of renters in our population than any other portion in the state. So, that’s even more justification on why we need to protect tenants’ rights because we have so many in our capital city.”

According to Phillips, the resolution would provide the city the authority to take minimal enforcement measures against landlords and owners of apartment buildings who neglect to maintain their properties in accordance with the code.

He threatens to take them to court so the city can foreclose on their property if they don’t comply with rectifying these problems.

“Ideally, however, we don’t want to go there. Hopefully, landlords understand that we have this right now, to use to protect tenants. So they do what they need to do on the front end without us having to go to court to foreclose on their property.”

Since he was forced to move because his previous residence was unsuitable, Phillips is dedicated to this endeavor. He believes that these modifications will become law and safeguard tenants in the future.