Durham tenant defense ordinance is a promising regulatory tool against dangerous rentals
March 12, 2026
In late October of 2025, Triangle Tenants Union, a local of the North Carolina Tenants Union, successfully pushed Durham’s city council to unanimously pass an ordinance that criminalizes the collection of rent by landlords overseeing dangerous and unlivable conditions.[1]
Under the new ordinance, landlords may be charged with a misdemeanor if they collect rent on housing that has immediately dangerous conditions; rotted or damaged structural supports, unsafe wiring, unsafe roofs, no potable water supply, no operating heating equipment in cold months, no operable sanitary facilities, severe pest infestation, no safe or unobstructed exits on ground levels, among other violations.[2]
While Durham tenants are of course celebrating, the “No Rent For Slumlords” ordinance is also meaningful for organizers and advocates outside of North Carolina. Like in many states with strong state preemption regimes, North Carolina’s conservative state government explicitly prohibits most common sense landlord-tenant interventions.[3] This policy shows that, when properly motivated, city officials do have the ability to use creative legal strategies to provide additional tenant protections even when state political environments are less than ideal. In the case of Durham’s ordinance, council members boldly rejected cautionary advice from the city attorney regarding potential preemption-related legal risk in order to avoid “weaken[ing] the teeth” of the ordinance.[4]
The win came following months of hard work and organizing by union members to build broad popular support for the policy, the language of which was first drafted by a local high school’s Affordable Housing Club.[5] During the city council meeting in which the ordinance was considered, more than twenty speakers mobilized to share their stories of maintenance neglect and call for stronger protections, accompanied by a packed room of supporters.[6]
“Before this ordinance passed, tenants suing their landlords to get back rent and necessary repairs were required to jump through complex legal hoops to argue about the precise amount of abatement, or back rent, they were owed. This ordinance makes it clear: unlivable means unlivable. Now, these conditions mean that the landlord owes them back 100% of their rent,” says a statement on NCTU’s website.[7]
The implications of the ordinance are multiple and broad. First, landlords can be charged with a misdemeanor each time they unlawfully collect rent. This is notable because in most cases, interventions against landlord misconduct are enforced via civil penalty (that is, if they are enforced at all).[8] What’s more, the ordinance provides another layer of protection in preventing unjust eviction because it requires tenants to be refunded the rent they pay while dwelling in unlivable conditions, “almost always” leading tenants to win in eviction court.[9]
Tenants who spoke at preceding Durham City Council work sessions noted that landlords across the city take advantage of a permissive regulatory environment to abuse marginalized tenants with few housing options. “In a housing market where more than 50 percent of Durham tenants are considered rent burdened, landlords pursuing a gentrification strategy have slow-walked maintenance of properties lacking basic amenities and imposing multiple safety hazards. The intent is to maximize profit by minimizing maintenance costs and often for tenants to break their leases in desperation or to otherwise be pushed out,” says NCTU’s website.[10]
This long-overdue intervention applies to all types of landlords, but is especially relevant to PESP’s work. Private equity and other large corporate landlords have an outsized presence in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill region, attracted to a high-reward speculative environment by the housing demand created in part by the region’s growing population and steady job market.[11] Just down the road in Raleigh, private equity owns 35% of all apartment units in the Raleigh metro area. The industry also owns 1 out of every 5 apartments in the state overall.[12] Because of North Carolina’s weak regulatory environment for rental housing,[13] corporate landlords, who have been documented to defer maintenance, raise rents, and disproportionately evict,[14] have had both the profit seeking motivation and the legal opportunity to take advantage of North Carolina tenants. Drawing on prior policy strategies from Charlotte, Pittsboro, and Pinesville, this ordinance is an extraordinary step forward that could signal the beginning of a turning tide for renters in Durham and beyond.[15]
For more examples of creative policy solutions that would improve tenant outcomes, see PESP’s Tools for Tackling Corporate Landlords report series.
[1]https://nctenantsunion.org/2025/10/21/triangle-tenant-union-wins-tenant-defense-ordinance-in-durham/
https://ncnewsline.com/2025/10/21/in-durham-tenants-get-new-tool-to-fight-landlords-who-wont-fix-dangerous-rentals/
[2] https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/durham-county-news/new-ordinance-in-durham-aims-to-halt-rent-collection-in-unsafe-housing/
Triangle Tenant Union Wins Tenant Defense ordinance in Durham
[3] https://www.supportdemocracy.org/equitablehousing#housingmap
[4] https://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/article312585209.html
[5] https://www.ncjustice.org/student-led-campaign-brings-new-housing-protections-to-durham-renters/
[6] https://nctenantsunion.org/2025/10/21/triangle-tenant-union-wins-tenant-defense-ordinance-in-durham/
[7] https://nctenantsunion.org/2025/10/21/triangle-tenant-union-wins-tenant-defense-ordinance-in-durham/
[8] https://ncnewsline.com/2025/10/21/in-durham-tenants-get-new-tool-to-fight-landlords-who-wont-fix-dangerous-rentals/
[9]https://nctenantsunion.org/2025/10/21/triangle-tenant-union-wins-tenant-defense-ordinance-in-durham/
https://ncnewsline.com/2025/10/21/in-durham-tenants-get-new-tool-to-fight-landlords-who-wont-fix-dangerous-rentals/
[10] https://nctenantsunion.org/2025/10/21/triangle-tenant-union-wins-tenant-defense-ordinance-in-durham/
[11] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-state-total.html
[12] https://pestakeholder.org/reports/private-equity-multi-family-housing-tracker/
[13] https://realwealth.com/learn/landlord-friendly-states/
[14] https://www.lisc.org/our-resources/resource/buying-block-impact-corporate-owners-tenants-and-how-promote-community-accountability/
[15] https://nctenantsunion.org/2025/10/21/triangle-tenant-union-wins-tenant-defense-ordinance-in-durham/
