Bill Text: MI SB0900 | 2023-2024 | 102nd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Labor: collective bargaining; tenants right to organize; provide for. Creates new act. TIE BAR WITH: SB 0901'24, SB 0902'24, SB 0903'24
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-06 - Referred To Committee On Housing And Human Services [SB0900 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2023-SB0900-Introduced.html
SENATE BILL NO. 900
A bill to establish the rights of tenants to organize tenant unions; to prohibit certain conduct; to provide remedies and prescribe penalties; and to provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local governmental officers and entities.
the people of the state of michigan enact:
Sec. 1. This act may be cited as the "tenants right to organize act".
(a) "Common area" means a portion of a rental premises that is generally accessible to all tenants. Common area includes, but is not limited to, a hallway, a stairway, a laundry and recreational room, a playground, a community center, a garage, or a boundary fence.
(b) "Landlord" means that term as defined in section 1 of 1972 PA 348, MCL 554.601.
(c) "Rental agreement" means an agreement that establishes or modifies the terms, conditions, rules, regulations, or any other provisions concerning the use and occupancy of a rental unit.
(d) "Rental unit" means a structure or part of a structure used as a home, residence, or sleeping unit by a single person or household unit, or any grounds, or other facilities or area promised for the use of a residential tenant.
(e) "Tenant" means an individual who occupies a rental unit for residential purposes with the landlord's consent for an agreed-upon consideration.
(f) "Tenant organizer" means a person that assists tenants in organizing, forming, or operating a tenant union and is not an employee or representative of the current or prospective landlord.
(g) "Tenant union" means a union organized or formed by tenants in residential premises that gives the tenants the right to do all of the following:
(i) Self-organize.
(ii) Join, meet, and assist one another.
(iii) Confer through representatives of the tenants' own choosing with a landlord.
(iv) Engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid and protection or refrain from any concerted activity if the tenants choose.
(v) Promulgate rules that govern the activities of the tenant union.
Sec. 5. Beginning on the effective date of this act, tenants have the right to organize or form a tenant union. A tenant union may do all of the following:
(a) Distribute literature in common areas in the rental premises.
(b) Place literature at or under tenants' doors.
(c) Post information on bulletin boards within the rental premises.
(d) Assist tenants to participate in tenant organizational activities.
(e) Convene tenants meetings at any reasonable time and in any appropriate space that would reasonably be interpreted as areas that the tenants have access to under the tenants' rental agreements, including a common area, the tenant's unit, if the tenant consent, or other available space. A tenant union may permit electronic attendance of a meeting convened under this act if a majority of the tenants in the tenant union consent to the electronic attendance. A landlord shall not attend or make audiorecordings of a meeting convened under this subdivision unless permitted to do so by a majority of tenants in attendance.
(f) Formulate responses to the landlord's actions, including rent or rent ceiling increases or requests for rent or rent ceiling increases, proposed increases or decreases, or other changes in the rental premises.
(g) Propose that the landlord modify the rental premises' facilities and services.
(h) Engage in any other activity reasonably related to the establishment or operation of a tenant union.
(i) Collect tenant union dues.
Sec. 7. (1) Tenants may engage the services of a tenant organizer to form a tenant union.
(2) A tenant organizer may canvass on behalf of the tenants in a multifamily rental premises. All of the following apply to a tenant organizer's right to canvass in a multifamily rental premises:
(a) If the multifamily rental premises has a written policy that allows canvassing, a tenant organizer that is not a tenant has the same privileges and rights of access as other uninvited outside parties in the normal course of operations.
(b) If the multifamily rental premises does not have a consistently enforced, written policy against canvassing, the multifamily rental premises must be treated as if it has a policy that allows canvassing.
(c) If a multifamily rental premises has a consistently enforced, written policy against canvassing, a tenant shall accompany the tenant organizer that is not a tenant while the tenant organizer is canvassing within the multifamily rental premises. The tenant organizer that is not a tenant has the same privileges and rights of access as other invited outside parties in the normal course of operations.
Sec. 9. (1) A landlord shall not do any of the following:
(a) Interfere with the rights of tenants or a tenant organizer under this act.
(b) Threaten, penalize, or discriminate or retaliate against a tenant that exercises the tenant's rights under this act. Discriminatory or retaliatory conduct includes, but is not limited to, intentionally delaying maintenance services, revoking access to community amenities, or taking frivolous adverse actions against a tenant.
(c) Interfere with or delay the investigation of a violation or the enforcement of this act.
(2) A landlord that violates subsection (1) is subject to all of the following:
(a) A civil fine of not more than $ 1,000.00 for each violation.
(b) An injunctive order.
(c) Reasonable attorney fees.
(3) The attorney general, a tenant, or a tenant organizer may bring an action to enforce this act in a court of competent jurisdiction in the county where the defendant resides or does business.
Sec. 11. If any portion of this act or the application of this act to any person or circumstances is found invalid by a court, the invalidity must not affect the remaining portions or applications of this act that can be given effect without the invalid portion or application, if the remaining portions are not determined by the court to be inoperative, and to this end this act is declared to be severable.
Enacting section 1. This act does not take effect unless all of the following bills of the 102nd Legislature are enacted into law:
(a) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No.____ (request no. 00622'23 *).
(b) Senate Bill No. 901.
(c) Senate Bill No. 902.
(d) Senate Bill No. 903.
