Author: prbirnberg

By Paul Birnberg, paulrainerbirnberg@gmail.com

Licensors of licensees who have overstayed their welcome don’t have a simple or clear path to legally remove them. The classic case is the adult child who is living for free in his parents home but won’t leave. As discussed here, amending the eviction-action (“unlawful-detainer”) statute Minn. Stat. § 504B.285 to allow housing courts to hear such disputes would make sense as well as provide bright-lines rules for the steps required to evict licensees.

By Paul Birnberg, paulrainerbirnberg@gmail.com

As discussed here, from 1984 to 2008, when a tenant’s landlord was foreclosed, the tenant’s lease was cancelled but the new owner (the foreclosing lender) had to give the tenant one-month notice of termination. From 2008 to 2011, that notice period was extended to two months. Starting in 2011 residential tenants got considerably more protection but commercial tenants lost all their protection as an unintended consequence of the way the new residential-tenant statute was written. The two-month protection for commercial tenants should be restored.

By Paul Birnberg, paulrainerbirnberg@gmail.com

When a tenant’s building may or may not have transferred ownership, the tenant has no good way to safely pay his rent to the correct landlord. A new Rent Escrow for Competing Landlords Statute would solve this problem, as discussed here.

By Paul Birnberg, paulrainerbirnberg@gmail.com

As discussed here, Minn. Stat. § 504B.401 allows service on the landlord of a TRA by posting on the tenant’s door and mailing to the landlord by certified mail. It also requires “due diligence” without saying what that entails. Changing section 504B.401 to closely track the more sensible Minn. Stat. § 504B.331 would make good sense.

By Paul Birnberg, paulrainerbirnberg@gmail.com

On January 24, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed out Senate File 125. Its companion bill, HF 495 was introduced on January 28.

The bill is a mixture of three parts. This blog only covers sections 1-2, the first part of the bill, which modify Minn. Stat. § 504B.111 and create a new Minn. Stat. § 504B.146. Section 1 requires residential leases for buildings with at least twelve units to identify the specific unit being rented. Section 2 requires residential leases ending in the middle of a month to disclose that on the first page of the lease, to disclose if rent is prorated for that partial month and if so how.

As discussed here, the bill helps deal with problems in a fair number of leases, especially in college neighborhoods, but has some drafting issues.