Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act

Today, I’m introducing legislation that repeals the Tenant Right of First Refusal program and replaces it with the Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. Owners of rental property must provide an offer of purchase to the renter if the owner is planning on selling it, complete with the last two years of inspections and any additional details about the property. The renter has 14 days to provide a letter of interest. This is the first of two pieces of legislation that will be on this subject. This one is for single family homes, and the other - which is going to take a while to work through - will apply to multi-family buildings.

Early in Councilwoman Clarke’s career, Frank Fisher from St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center approached the Councilwoman to introduce legislation for tenants to purchase the property from landlords when the home is going to be sold. It was necessary at the time because renters were being evicted en masse when homes were being sold at the height of the market at the time. In 1997, I was able to purchase my first house on 2513 Guilford Avenue because of this law. While the law has since been dismantled, it is extremely important to bring it back and strengthen it so that others have the same opportunity that I had.