Columbus pushing back against retaliatory evictions
The Columbus City Council recently updated
its law against retaliatory evictions, prohibiting tenants from being
evicted in retaliation for complaining about housing conditions, unfair
rent increases or other problems.
Before Tinnissha Wilkerson and her roommate complained to
Columbus city code enforcement about conditions in their North Linden
rental house, they asked the landlord to make repairs.
“There’s a lot that he doesn’t fix,” Wilkerson said. “He’d jimmy-rig things and not really repair them.”
The women decided that the moldy, decaying walls were the last straw. They called city code enforcement, which triggered an inspection and a notice of numerous violations, including damaged floors and ceilings, exposed electrical outlets and missing smoke detectors.