New laws in 2024 that will affect Minnesota landlords and tenants

By Pauleen Le

The new laws taking effect in 2024 are some of the largest changes Minnesota has seen in decades. State lawmakers passed more than a dozen changes in the 2023 legislative session.

Among the top changes, landlords will be required to disclose any fees including administrative, cleaning or moving-in fees as part of the ‘total monthly rent’ on the first page of a lease and in advertisements.

Landlords will also required to maintain the minimum temperature in units at 68 degrees from October to the end of April.

They will also have to give tenants a 14-day written notice before they file for an eviction if the tenant didn’t pay their rent on time.

Landlords will also have to give a minimum of 24 hours’ notice before entering the property for things including maintenance, showings to future tenants or deliveries.

Rachael Sterling, a housing attorney and communications coordinator for HOME Line — a local nonprofit organization that helps tenants navigate Minnesota’s laws — said they’ve been championing these changes for years.

She said she’s hopeful the changes will improve the communication between tenants and landlords to provide a better experience overall for everyone.

“When we talk to tenants, that’s one of the biggest issues is when communication stops or it’s poor,” she said. “That’s when problems arise and that’s when people start calling us. A lot of these are just about clarifying communication and making sure that there’s no assumptions that folks know what they’re getting themselves into.”

Sterling said since 2020, phone calls to the nonprofit for help have skyrocketed and are now on track to set a new record surpassing 20,000 calls this year.

She said the majority of calls the last two years have been about concerns related to evictions. Before 2020, most calls were about repair issues.

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Since the laws passed, leaders at the Minnesota Multi-Housing Authority have been working hard to understand and train their members on the changes coming in the new year.

The organization represents 300,000 rental units or nearly half of the entire rental market in Minnesota.

Cecil Smith is the MMHA’s president and CEO. He said several of the changes were already standard practice for many of the owners and landlords a part of the organization long before they became law.

He said the biggest adjustment for landlords will be giving tenants 24-hours’ notice before entry.

“That’s going to cost,” he said. “That’s going to take a lot of time and energy and organization because there’s maintenance requests that come in, there’s deliveries that come in and saying it has to be at least 24 hours requires more energy and scheduling and coordination and that takes time and energy and money.”

Smith adds there’s also concern that the cost to make all the changes could ultimately trickle down to the tenants.

“It’s already added more costs because we’ve done lots and lots of training with our members and they’re doing in-house costs, and obviously that’s taken staff time and resources already to do that and that’s not free,” he said.

Smith notes another major change happening later in the summer of 2024 where landlords will no longer be able to evict a tenant for committing crimes that happened somewhere other than their property…

Smith said MMHA plans to raise their concerns about the law in the upcoming legislative session.

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