Reentry-funded tenants get discharge planning before lease termination

Landlords must help covered tenants complete a discharge plan that includes housing before ending the lease. This applies when rent is paid in whole or in part by listed state reentry funds or another state housing fund for people leaving Department of Correction or child-welfare custody. Before or with the first payment, the fund payment administrator must give the landlord written explanations, contact information, and a model discharge plan. Before ending the lease, the landlord must notify the fund payment administrator and, when known, the Department of Correction and local law enforcement if the tenant is under correctional supervision. The landlord must include a short statement of compliance and copies of required notices in an eviction complaint. The requirements apply to rental agreements entered into on or after the Act’s effective date, which is six months after enactment.

A landlord that fails to complete the required planning and notices cannot receive payments from any covered state reentry fund for one year. The rule covers landlords receiving payments from a covered state reentry fund and tenants whose rent is paid by that fund. The payment administrator must notify the landlord, covered funds, and affected tenants of the one-year ban. Affected tenants do not owe the share of rent previously paid by the fund. Those tenants may continue under the rental agreement at their own share of the rent or end the lease immediately or with 30 to 60 days’ notice. The one-year ban begins the day after the payment administrator determines that the landlord failed to comply; tenant notices must state when fund payments will stop.

The text treats certain residences as outside the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code and sets separate lease-ending rules for some owner-occupied buildings. The listed exclusions cover specified health-care, student, correctional, religious, and transient lodging arrangements; the separate room-rental rules cover an owner’s primary residence with no more than three rented rooms and three tenants. The exclusion for a facility operated by a licensed health-care provider is tied to the cited state licensing law. The separate room-rental rules do not apply when the reentry-fund requirements apply. For a written room-rental agreement, the text allows immediate termination after notice of a material violation of a rule given at the start of the agreement. Without a written lease, the text provides 15 days’ notice for a quiet-enjoyment breach or similar conduct and 30 days’ notice for another reason. The Act takes effect six months after enactment; the reentry-fund rules apply to rental agreements entered into on or after that effective date.