Cleveland City Council Passes Pay to Stay Legislation: What Renters Need To Know

On August 10th, 2022, members of Cleveland City Council voted unanimously to pass Pay to Stay legislation! While it's not the strongest tenant protection housing advocates can imagine, it's a step in the direction towards making fairness the status quo for renters behind on their rent who come up with the money owed. Thanks to everyone who reached out to councilmembers to express your support!

Under Ohio law, a landlord isn't required to accept late payments, which means a renter can be legally evicted for being just a day late on rent. Under Cleveland's Pay to Stay ordinance, renters who tender rent, reasonable late fees, and court costs by the time of the hearing can raise Pay to Stay to help avoid an eviction judgment. Under the ordinance, renters waiting on emergency rental assistance can provide an approval letter from an organization like CHN as a way to "tender" rent, since we know the wait time to receive assistance takes 45 days on average.

Although we advocated for Pay to Stay to be written as a right, it passed as an affirmative defense. However, we've already seen the first case where an objection was filed to the court for not enforcing the Pay to Stay defense in Cincinnati. This is a sign that it is worth codifying equitable defenses into law.

We are lucky that Cleveland has a housing court that encourages mediation for struggling renters, but what people don't know can't help them. Codifying Pay to Stay will help renters, housing organizers, and advocates spread the word to renters facing eviction.

Lastly, Pay to Stay applies to nonpayment of rent cases only, which means that the legislation could make it more difficult for landlords to evict a renter for other reasons in situations where they can use the nonpayment filing as the easier route to get a renter out without having to file for a just cause reason. In that sense, Pay to Stay ensures fairness in the eviction process for filings related to nonpayment of rent.

Click here to see the legislation.

Molly Martin