When you’re a renter and something in your apartment breaks, who do you call to fix it?  And what do you do when that person or group does nothing?  As IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports, the Anderson Fair Housing Coalition gathered to teach tenants about these issues on Friday.

Tamie Dixon-Tatum is the civil and human rights director for the city of Anderson.  She says the biggest issue facing tenants is ineffective property management.

“If corporate doesn’t have a good property manager and someone has maintenance issues, they aren’t getting fixed,” said Dixon-Tatum. “And when the tenant speaks up about this, they face retaliation, and what that looks like is eviction.”

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A Muncie property management group made headlines last year when it settled with the state attorney general on not addressing maintenance issues, having illegal “as-is” clauses in leases, and charging incorrectly nonrefundable fees.

The company is being monitored by the state’s Homeowner Protection Unit for two years.

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Dixie-Tatum was followed by multiple housing law experts that gave lectures and answered audience questions. Among the topics discussed were equal opportunity in housing and landlord and tenant rights information.

The conference saw more than 100 people educated on their rights as tenants in Indiana.

Conference officials suggest if you have a housing issue, document it and file a complaint with the state civil rights commission, or a local one if your city has one.  In the IPR area, the closest is in Muncie.

In 2022, the Muncie City Council complained that a 2020 state law restricts local governments from enacting measures to increase renter rights and penalize landlords.  The council said all Muncie could do was have the building commissioner’s office tag problems and fine the building owner.

Stephanie Wiechmann contributed reporting.

Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer.  Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu.