New bill pushes to give tenants more rights in Nebraska

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – It’s referred to as the Residential Tenant Clear Slate Act and it’s designed to present renters extra rights so their previous doesn’t drag them down.

LB-175 stipulates that should you meet sure necessities, the state of Nebraska would seal your information on the subject of earlier evictions. State Sen. George Dungan, a former public defender, launched it.

In Omaha, Lawyer Dave Pantos volunteers in eviction court docket not less than as soon as every week. He represents renters in courtroom 20 of the Omaha/Douglas Civic Heart.

Pantos says the present look-back interval of a tenant’s historical past is seven years. This invoice would scale back that to 3 years.

“You possibly can have a state of affairs the place a landlord recordsdata for an eviction, that’s a part of a public court docket file and so a future landlord does a fast search of an applicant’s file, they see the submitting and so they transfer on to the subsequent particular person,” Pantos stated. “They are saying I’m not going to lease to that particular person, someone filed towards them even when it was dismissed.”

Pantos, who usually posts on social media how he did every week in eviction court docket, says not all landlords are unhealthy. Nevertheless, he believes the COVID-19 pandemic modified the owner and tenant dynamic with so many individuals shedding their earnings or getting laid off by no fault of their very own.

He needs to see new protections for individuals so that they don’t get kicked out.

“If of us lose earnings due to sickness, a variety of of us don’t have protections like paid sick go away, they shouldn’t be compelled to not have a spot to remain,” Pantos stated.

Invoice sponsor Dungan says previous evictions shouldn’t hang-out tenants and maintain them in a cycle of hardship.

He’s hoping the invoice will get a good shot at a debate and vote within the Unicameral, not tied up in committee.

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