As Bemidji residents evacuate apartment building, what rights do tenants have?

[MUSIC PLAYING] EMILY BRIGHT: Some tenants are finally allowed back in their high-rise building in Rochester, Minnesota, this week, one month after that condo was evacuated due to structural concerns. Meanwhile, the 47 residents of an apartment building in Bemidji have until 4:00 PM today to evacuate their apartments after city officials cited safety concerns about that building's structural integrity. The city of Bemidji declined a request for comment, but the situation raises concerns about tenant rights in these cases.

Samuel Spaid is on the line. He is a housing attorney and impact litigation and research director at HOME Line. That's a nonprofit Minnesota tenant advocacy organization. Welcome to Minnesota Now.

SAMUEL SPAID: Hello.

EMILY BRIGHT: Hi. Welcome. So we know-- as we're following the story of this Red Pine building in Bemidji, we know there's a GoFundMe for residents that's raised over $8,000. And residents are looking for food, shelter, temporary place to stay. So I'd like to talk about what renters could do in a similar situation. If they feel their building is no longer a safe place to live, what options do they have?

SAMUEL SPAID: Sure. Well, it really depends on exactly what's going on. Obviously, in a situation like this, where it's very serious and the city is essentially saying you have to move, that might be one thing they have to do. But there are things that a tenant can do to protect themselves or get money back or sometimes even force repairs, depending upon why they have to move.

There's a bunch of different laws that apply, and I'll try to be a little bit more general than citing statutes everywhere. But there is a court case a tenant can file called an emergency tenant remedies action that allows them to go in front of a judge and ask the judge to order the landlord to fix the problem. They also have the right to break their lease in almost all cases, especially a case as serious as this. They would have the right to break their lease if a building becomes destroyed or uninhabitable.

If they decide to break their lease and leave, they get their security deposit back in five days. The landlord should be refunding the full security deposit in most cases. It's very hard to imagine that in a case where the building is condemned, the landlord has any real claim for damages.

And there may be other options as well, such as rent compensation, moving expenses, et cetera. Those are all very fact-specific. And of course, for people who have legal questions, they can call HOME Line. Or with these buildings, I think they might want to call legal aid in their area, which I believe is LA-- let me actually find that. LSNM, Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota, has been working with people from these buildings, and they should contact them as well.

EMILY BRIGHT: Generally-- and we don't know specifically what's made the building unsafe in this case. The city declined an interview request from MPR News. But generally, does a landlord have a responsibility to pay for displaced tenants. Like, if you're being forced to evacuate, can you get those costs covered?

SAMUEL SPAID: It can really depend on the situation. There are definitely cases where the landlord would have to. Cities can also put ordinances in that might require it. For example, Minneapolis has an ordinance that requires tenant relocation assistance, the landlord to pay tenant relocation assistance if the fault is the landlord's. I don't believe Bemidji has something like that, but it is possible that other cities might.

And with the court case that I mentioned before, that's often the best way to get a judge involved and have a judge maybe order some of those compensations, whether it's moving expenses or a discount in rent or some type of compensatory damages for having to terminate the lease early and move. And again, of course, as I mentioned, you get the security deposit back in five days--

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, that's big.

SAMUEL SPAID: --if you decide to move.

EMILY BRIGHT: You mentioned Minneapolis. There are 22 families at the Bell Lofts in Minneapolis who were displaced late last year after the building flooded. City inspectors logged nearly 40 so-called life safety issues there. And I'm wondering, do renters have public access to violations at their building? Or is that something that varies city by city?

SAMUEL SPAID: It varies city by city. Minneapolis is pretty good about making their inspection reports public. Other cities, especially depending upon the size of the city, may or may not have them as available. In many cases, though, the tenants still have a right to get them through an information request from the city. And often, the city will simply provide them.

There's also a state law that says if the tenant is the one that got the city inspector out there, then the tenant has a right to the report as well. So in cases where the tenant is the one to initiate the call and get the city inspector out there to start with, that can be useful for the tenant because it gets them a bit more information.

EMILY BRIGHT: How would you go about having your building inspected if you're renting and you're just concerned-- you have some kind of valid concern about its structure? What do you do?

SAMUEL SPAID: Well, you would normally call the city. And this is also unfortunately very dependent upon the city. Many cities have a good inspection system where city inspectors will come out at the tenant's request. But that is obviously not true for all city.

Again, city size can vary greatly. And it may not be the case where you are that a city inspector is available. But in many cities, they do have city inspectors that will come out at the tenant's request to do an inspection. And that can often be the best way to get someone to look at these more general structural issues.

EMILY BRIGHT: So this is the fourth subsidized building to be shut down this year in Bemidji. The Red Pine tenants are mostly older and disabled. So these are people with potentially fewer resources to start with. Does inequality play a factor in building conditions, such as something like this or flooding at Bell Lofts, where they're not fixed until the situation is pretty dire?

SAMUEL SPAID: They certainly can. There are a lot of residential tenants in Minnesota. I think roughly 30% of Minnesota households are rental households. And many of those tenants do have subsidies.

Landlords are different across the board. So many landlords do take care of their properties. But many landlords do not. And often, that does fall on tenants who have subsidies-- landlords not taking care of the property as well as they should.

EMILY BRIGHT: So at HOME Line, what kind of range of calls do you get?

SAMUEL SPAID: Well, we get everything. I maybe should have said this earlier, but we are a free legal advice service. We give free legal advice to residential tenants in Minnesota. We don't have any income guidelines. We don't do direct representation, but we talk with people by phone or by email about the problems. And we cover almost any issue that you can think of if it relates to a landlord-tenant relationship.

But repairs are the number one reason people call us. Last year, we advised approximately 20,000 renter households. I don't remember what percent of those were repair calls. But that was the most common reason people called us. And it's the most common reason people are calling us this year as well. And we will likely advise more than 20,000 renter households this year.

EMILY BRIGHT: That is a really great resource for people to know about.

SAMUEL SPAID: We hope so.

EMILY BRIGHT: Well, Samuel, that's the time we have. Thank you for your expertise. We appreciate it.

SAMUEL SPAID: Thank you.

EMILY BRIGHT: Take care. Samuel Spaid is a housing attorney and impact litigation and research director at HOME Line. That's a nonprofit Minnesota tenant advocacy organization. And their hotline is-- here's the number-- 612-728-5767 or toll-free from Greater Minnesota, 866-866-3546.