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Arkansas: The Worst Place to Rent in America - YouTube
Channel: VICE News
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the police came to our house on Tuesday
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I never received the eviction notice
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we came in and I explained the situation
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they offered him 90 days in jail because
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I fail you to vacate it it's
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unconstitutional it's a hard life for
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renters in Arkansas it's the only state
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in America with no implied warranty of
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habitability or in other words landlords
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are not required to make repairs or
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maintain their properties perhaps more
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radical it's the only state where you
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can be prosecuted fined and jailed for
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not paying rent on time every year more
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than two thousand people are charged
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under Arkansas is failure to vacate low
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Dustin Duke is a legal aid attorney he
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specializes in representing tenants in
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failure to vacate cases failure to
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vacate has passed at the beginning of
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the last century the quest of landlords
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is a easy cheap method to dispossessed
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tenants of their property with really
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minimal effort on the landlord's part
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because the state is is taking over that
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role for them if a tenant is even a day
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late on rent the landlord can begin the
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eviction process tenants are given only
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ten days to vacate the property a
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conviction can carry a fine up to a
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hundred dollars for each day the tenant
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remains in the property and up to 90
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days in jail it just it's just black and
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white is your rent due yes or no did you
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pay the rent if the answer is no and you
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haven't gotten out in 10 days then you
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can be convicted under the statute it's
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a crime this makes things difficult for
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the third of Arkansas's residents who
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are renters and have legitimate concerns
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about the properties they're occupying
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tenants are required to pay rent even if
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their landlords aren't maintaining their
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properties Arkansas is the second
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poorest state in America and 18% of the
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population that lived below the poverty
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line are now being swept up into the
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criminal justice system Kim Barnes was
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evicted for being late on rent
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they actually fingerprinted me and took
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a motion like I was a criminal
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I said out of this just cause a failure
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to vacate Barnes claimed she'd paid the
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rent on time but the landlord refused to
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take her payment with me in my situation
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I'm gonna make sure my kids have a roof
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over they hated that rent gonna be the
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first thing I pay out I had proof that I
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had the the money order she just wanted
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us out under Arkansas is criminal
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eviction statute Burns was given 10 days
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to move despite claiming she moved
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before the time period ended her
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landlord pressed charges for failure to
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vacate I hit re boom once I got my visa
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notice and she wouldn't work with us we
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just said okay we'll move and then I had
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to go to court today he asked me how do
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I plead on fare to vacate and I said not
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guilty because I mean I'm not guilty
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because I was out of this woman's place
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in reasonable time like she asked me to
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be after she still when they sent my
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payment
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I have to go back in April hoped about
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it I have all my paperwork showing what
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dates I did exactly move out
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challenging a criminal eviction is
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tricky if a tenant like Barnes wants to
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plead not guilty and take their case to
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trial they first have to pay the full
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amount of rent that the landlord claims
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they owe in to the court so there's a
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real incentive there for the tentative
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just to leave to get out of the premises
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and especially considering that they're
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now facing a crime most the time it's
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just the matter of the tenant getting
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out and you might say well what's wrong
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with that
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if they owe money maybe they should get
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out but the problem is the way the
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system is set up it allows landlords to
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abuse the system the tenant very rarely
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is a chance to give their side of the
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story you might be withholding the rent
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because landlord promised to make
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repairs you never get to raise those
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claims of course because this isn't a
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civil matter you don't get to raise
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counterclaims in a criminal lawsuit well
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let's just assume that it's just a
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straight-up
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non-payment of rent case even then you
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got a question the wisdom of deciding in
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this particular case that the state
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wants to pick up the tab
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the state of Arkansas bears the cost of
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deploying members of law enforcement to
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serve evictions and providing
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prosecutors for court proceedings it
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only cost the landlords as a small
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processing fee that is good news for
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landlords and their representatives
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Jason Baldwin is a real estate attorney
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in a landlord with more than 60
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properties the criminal method is not as
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radical as it may seem I've been
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handling hundreds of evictions over the
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years I've never once seen a tenant ever
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serve a day in jail due to the criminal
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eviction statute that would say 90% of
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all evictions in Arkansas use the
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criminal method it's fairly simple and
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easy and inexpensive if the tenant is
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staying in your property and not paying
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the rent
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essentially the tenants allowed to steal
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from you it's a crime akin to a parking
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ticket you park at the meter you don't
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put any money in to that meter well then
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you can be ticketed I don't live in my
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car maybe the people who are comparing
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it to a parking ticket do live in their
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cars but this is somebody's home that's
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that's being taken away from them and
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their conduct is being criminalized
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tenants are sometimes jailed under this
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statute currently the data on the number
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of tenants jailed in cases related to
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Arkansas as criminal eviction statute is
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not available to the public in fact much
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of the information available about the
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reality of landlord tenant relations in
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Arkansas has not come from the state but
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from legal researchers like Lynn foster
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with the landlord tenant situation you
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have kind of the poorest segments of our
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society being penalized for this
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behavior which in every other state is
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not criminal behavior I think that's one
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reason why nothing much has been done
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and not much attention has been focused
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on it
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in 2011 foster joined a state assembled
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commission of tenant advocates industry
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groups lawyers and judges to recommend
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modifications to Arkansas as
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landlord-tenant law their report
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released in the winter of 2012
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recommended repealing failure to vacate
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what the Commission recommended
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unanimously was that a better
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civilization statute be put into place
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then the failure to vacate statute
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should be repealed by the legislature
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the commission's recommendations were
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approved by representatives of all
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parties most importantly tenants rights
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advocates in both major associations
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representing landlords and realtors but
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implementing the recommendations have
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approved daunting my initial thought
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when I received the commission's
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recommendations was that we might be
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able to turn that into legislation and
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try to get something passed during the
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session that we were currently in it
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became clear to us pretty quickly that
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the Realtors and the landlord's were
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very vehemently against this issue and
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would lobby hard against it I don't
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think I expected that kind of opposition
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to happen so quickly and so strongly it
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seemed like the recommendations were the
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result of consensus the Arkansas
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Realtors Association proved to have an
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influential lobby they circulated a
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letter around the legislature in
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opposition to the commission's
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recommendations after that few lawmakers
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would consider the proposed changes in a
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letter to their membership the
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Association celebrated that they had
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stopped the bill it mentioned that they
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had fought legislation intended to
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fundamentally change landlord tenant
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practices in Arkansas and that the
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municipal eviction process would have
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been eliminated and warranty of
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habitability imposed in other words
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evictions in Arkansas can no longer be
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criminalized and landlords would be
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required under the law like the rest of
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the United States to maintain their
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properties after repeated requests for
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an interview or a statement the Arkansas
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Realtors Association refused to comment
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there is at least one very very powerful
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Lobby that works on behalf of folks who
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are landlords and tenants do not have
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any correspondingly powerful lobby on
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the other hand of course if you're
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counting votes there are more tenants in
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Arkansas then there are landlords about
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a third of all our Kansans are tenants
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so the numbers would be on the tenants
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side the money may be on the landlord's
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side lawmakers in Arkansas meet only for
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a few months every two years to pass
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legislation the failure to vacate law
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won't be debated again until 2015 it's
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embarrassing for Arkansas to be an
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outlier in this way to use law
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enforcement to enforce a private
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contract is pretty unheard of
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we don't have debtor prisons in the
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United States anymore it is not a
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violation of international rights rather
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it is simply a tool that allows people
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to cost effectively remove a tenant who
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is failing to pay the rent and admitting
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before a judge that they have refused to
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pay the rent and remained in the
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property when we're allocating resources
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are we really wanting to supplement
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their profits are we really trying to
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supplement the landlord's when we can
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use these resources for so many other
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things are so much better the tenant
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they're intimidated by the process they
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don't have lawyers most of the time and
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they're facing not only the the prospect
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of owing a lot of money but even the
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possibility of jail time things come up
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kids you see parents can see you you see
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and stop trying to bring in cops into
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did really not every day Baker concerns
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is the streets
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