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Orlando Congress member Maxwell Alejandro Frost unveiled a bill aimed at putting an end to fees he calls excessive and dishonest for renters. The proposal is called the End Junk Fees for Renters Act.
Frost, Congress’s youngest member, stood in front of the US Capitol last week in front of supporters.
“This bill is about standing firmly on the side of renters and tenants, and working people who are hurt by landlords and leasing companies that solely want to squeeze as much money from them as possible.”
That’s audio from Frost’s social media. The bill bans application and screening fees for renters and prohibits credit score screening in the renter application process. It also requires landlords to disclose pest and maintenance issues in the rental contract.
He also cited racial disparities. 73 percent of Black and Hispanic renters and 84 percent of Asian renters pay an application fee, compared with 56 percent of white renters.
Frost wants to gain non-partisan support for this bill.
“We hope we’ll have some Republican colleagues join us on this because this is to help their constituents too, it’s to help everyone around the country. It’s not about Democrat versus Republican, it’s about the people versus the problem.”
This comes one week after Biden announced a similar effort to lower costs for renters. His plan included commitments from rental platforms like Apartments.com and Zillow for transparency in pricing. Governor Desantis recently approved legislation invalidating local tenant’s laws.
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