Monthly Rent Court Data Dashboard
Baltimore Renters United works to collect and analyze data from rent court regularly, and as part of this effort we’ve begun tracking and sharing data in monthly increments to help tenants recognize current trends in cases to be better prepared for particular outcomes or to remain informed in general. The following data is what we’ve collected for the month of October 2024. Check back regularly for the most current data.
This data outlines the typical outcome of cases.
For the month of October we see a surprising amount of voluntary dismissals. Voluntary dismissals are cases where the landlord or their agent withdrew the case without a hearing, showing that those are cases where the tenant had to come to court, likely missing a day of work, for a case that probably had no legal basis in the first place.
Most cases this month ended in favor of landlords…
…Even though landlords rarely appear in court themselves.
…which is because in Baltimore City landlords aren’t required to appear in court the way that tenants are. In fact, landlords are only required to have an agent appear on their behalf. Who qualifies as an agent? Pretty much anyone the landlord or property management company deems appropriate. This means that while many tenants miss court dates because of work or life obligations (thus causing them to lose more cases), landlords aren’t held to the same standard. Agents aren’t even required to be legal representatives, they can literally be anyone.
Most cases this month were not over habitability concerns.
Many cases for lack of payment are over concerns of habitability. This means that tentats had an issue with their living conditions, ranging from lack of heat/hot water to other environmental issues. Typically we see an increase in these in seasons of extreme weather when there are likely to be more leaks or weatherproofing issues that become apparent with temperature change, or when when tenants are using climate control equipment (heating/AC) for the first time since moving into a unit. However this month this was not the case likely because many tenants were not informed by the judge at the time of trial that they were able to bring this up, something judges are legally required to notify tenants of.
