What a good system for problems with living conditions does
A tenant has mold or no heat, the landlord will not fix it, and stopping the rent is the thing that gets them evicted. Here is what a good system does, in order, with a question for you at each step.
This list comes from what the groups at a recent design workshop the Commons team ran said the work needs. Answer the questions on the parts you know from your own practice. The Commons team reads every answer, fixes what the list gets wrong, and takes the harder questions to the cohort working on this area.
The tenant arrives wanting to stop paying rent until the work is done, and that is the step that exposes them to an eviction for nonpayment. The first thing a system here has to do is explain the route their state actually allows.
What a good system does
Ask what the condition is, how long it has gone on, and what the tenant has already asked for.
Say which rent remedy that state allows, because in some places the rent goes into a court supervised account and in others the same step happens privately and is raised later as a defense.
Say plainly that holding rent outside the process is what puts a tenant at risk of eviction for nonpayment.
Check the conditions most of these routes require, which are being current on rent, giving written notice, and waiting out a cure period.
Work for a tenant with no internet access at home, through a phone line or a person at a counter.
What it must never do
Repeat a rule from somewhere else because it is easier to find than the rule for that county.
What does a tenant have to do before they can use the rent remedy where you work?
Answer this
Part 2
Recording the condition as it happens
A tenant may have little record of a condition while it is happening, so by the time anyone needs evidence it is whatever they happened to keep. This part is the one that decides whether the case is provable later.
What a good system does
Walk the tenant through photographing the condition, rather than leaving them to work out what matters.
Record the date and the time of everything the tenant adds, and keep it with the file.
Take the readings that prove the condition, such as an indoor temperature during a heat failure.
Keep what the tenant has already asked for and when, including messages and conversations, because that is often all they have.
Hold the evidence in a form that can be filed later without being assembled again.
What it must never do
Lose what a tenant collected because they could not finish in one sitting.
What evidence does your court actually want in a repair case?
Answer this
Part 3
Putting the repair request on the record
A conversation in the hallway or a text message is a common way to ask for a repair, and neither one starts the clock. The request has to be written, delivered in a way that can be proven, and dated.
What a good system does
Produce a written repair demand that meets what that jurisdiction requires.
Deliver it in a way the tenant can prove afterwards, and keep the proof with the file.
Date it, and run the cure period from the date it was delivered.
Tell the tenant what the landlord now has to do and by when.
What makes a repair demand count where you work?
Answer this
Part 4
Keeping the rent moving the way the remedy requires
The remedy usually depends on the rent continuing to move, whether that means paying into an account the court supervises, paying for the repair and deducting it, or carrying on paying while the claim runs.
What a good system does
Tell the tenant which of those routes applies to them, and what it requires each month.
Keep a ledger of what was paid, when, and where it went.
Record payments made the way people actually pay rent, including transfers from a phone, so the ledger matches what happened.
Keep the tenant current on whatever the remedy depends on, and warn them before they fall out of it.
What it must never do
Tell a tenant to stop paying.
What does a tenant in your jurisdiction do with the rent while a repair case runs?
Answer this
Part 5
Filing when the deadline passes
If the cure period runs out and nothing is fixed, the case goes in. Everything the filing needs was collected in the earlier steps, so this part is assembly rather than a fresh start.
What a good system does
Track the cure period against that jurisdiction’s rules and tell the tenant when it runs out.
Assemble the filing from the notice, the proof of delivery, the evidence, and the ledger already held.
Tell the tenant what filing does and does not do for them.
Say which forms and deadlines are local, so a team in another county knows what it has to replace.
What does a tenant have to file in your court to start a repair case?
Answer this
Part 6
Getting the condition inspected and the parties talking
An inspection turns the tenant’s account into a finding somebody else made, and bringing the parties together early is often what gets the work done without a hearing.
What a good system does
Give the inspector what the tenant recorded, so the visit starts from the evidence.
Record the inspection result in the same file as everything else.
Bring the parties together early rather than waiting for the hearing date.
How long does it take to get an inspector out where you work?
Answer this
Part 7
Watching the repairs and releasing the money
The point of holding the rent is that the landlord feels the pressure while the tenant keeps their home, so the money moves only when the work is actually done.
What a good system does
Track whether the repairs were made and by when.
Release held rent only when completion has been verified.
Record what was fixed and what was not.
Keep the case open while the condition is unfixed.
Who decides that a repair is done where you work?
Answer this
Part 8
Showing that it works
The standards the cohort writes decide what counts as a system that worked here, and the measures below are the ones the groups asked for.
What a good system does
Measure whether the repairs actually get made.
Measure whether the tenancy is kept.
Check what the tool says about the remedy available in that place against what the law there says.
Measure how a tenant without internet access is served, rather than counting only the people who got through online.
What would you need measured before you would put a tenant through this?
Answer this
What happens to what you write
Every note comes to the Commons team. We read it, correct what this list gets wrong, and publish a new version saying what changed. The questions that need practitioners to argue them out go to the cohort for this area, which writes the functional agenda and the standards from what comes back.
A note about one line is as useful as a note that adds a whole step. If what you know is the rent remedy your state allows, write about that.
The two agendas for this workflow
You are reading this one
Step-by-step agenda
This is the first round, and it collects what the people who do this work say a tool has to do, in the order the work happens and in plain words. Read it to argue with it, to correct it, and to say what your jurisdiction needs.
Not written yet
Functional agenda
The cohort writes the detailed specification after this round, using the answers that come back from this page. It numbers every capability, states the standard each one has to meet, and sorts them by the scope of the system being built, so a builder can build against it and an evaluator can test against it.
