For the second time in a year and a half, Victor found himself in the hospital after one of his three kids woke up with excruciating pain.

The first cockroach pulled from his 8-year-old’s ear was alive. Another one had died inside.

Bugs were not the only problem that Victor, 33, said was plaguing his apartment in Brooklyn, a neighborhood in South Baltimore. Rainwater seeped into the living room through leaky walls and peeling paint. The kitchen smelled of gas, and black water streamed out of the faucet, according to Victor, who requested the Banner only use his first name out of fear of further retribution from past landlords.

Six years ago, Baltimore, where around half of residents live in rental properties, passed an ordinance intended to ensure rental properties “meet basic safety and maintenance requirements,” according to the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

To be legally put on the rental market, properties must obtain a rental license by registering with the city and passing a home inspection. Initial licenses are valid for two years, and must be renewed every one to three years, depending on the property’s maintenance record and violation history.

Earlier this week, a renters’ rights bill first introduced by council member Zeke Cohen in 2023 cleared a major hurdle. The bill, which Cohen says will address shortcomings in the rental licenses system that affect some of Baltimore’s most vulnerable residents, will now advance to a full City Council vote.

Groups representing rental property owners and managers agree with housing advocates that the system is an overall positive. Aaron Greenfield, the director of Government Affairs at Maryland Multi-Housing Association, said landlords who don’t comply with the law should be held accountable.

“If they’re not licensed, they shouldn’t be leasing,” he said.

When the law is enforced, it is being used to “protect tenants from unfair evictions and prevent unscrupulous landlords from collecting money in violation of the law,” Zafar Shah, the assistant director of the nonprofit Advocacy at Maryland Legal Aid, said.

Still, housing advocates say the success of the measures has been limited by complaint-dependent enforcement, loopholes that enable negligence and abuse, and insufficient awareness by both tenants and landlords.

Victor eventually refused to pay rent for several months because of the unlivable conditions. In March, his landlord took him to court for the money and attempted to evict the family.

Victor’s attorney demanded the landlords produce a copy of their rental license. When, after weeks of stalling, they were unable to produce one, the case was dismissed.

The property where Victor and his family had been living and paying rent for about eight years had never been licensed.

An uphill battle

Rental licenses became a hot idea around a decade ago as a way for cities to proactively manage substandard housing without depending on complaint-driven solutions, said Shah, who has been aiding renters in fighting evictions since before the laws were put in place. In Maryland, the six biggest counties all have their own version of rental license requirements, he added.

“It’s a process that the city needs to have,” he said.

To secure a rental license, owners or landlords need to pass an inspection conducted by an independent, city-licensed and state-registered inspector. Inspections consist of 20 checks for things such as secure locks, protected electrical wires and functioning smoke detectors.

Inspection prices typically range from around $100 to over $200, depending on the terms. Tenant advocates say there’s an inherent conflict of interest in having a landlord choose an inspector and be the one responsible for paying them.

“Landlords get to pick their own private inspector, and so the inspectors are incentivized to pass the properties in order to get more business,” said Samantha Gowing, an attorney at the legal nonprofit Public Justice Center, who represented Victor in court.

Housing advocates say rental owners are then required to upload to a city website a PDF of their passing inspection, signed off by the inspector, but the document isn’t vetted by any system or person. Though it’s unlikely many owners take advantage of this loophole, multiple attorneys at the Public Justice Center said they’ve seen it occur.

The city estimates there are more than 66,000 rental properties, according to Tammy Hawley, a spokesperson for DHCD.

More than 40% of properties that are “expected to be licensed” are not, Hawley said in an email. The department didn’t specify the cause of this shortfall, but the current system requires that someone proactively report an unlicensed property for the DHCD to take note, she added.

To help beef up enforcement, the city revamped the database where the public can see which properties are licensed. State lawmakers also passed a bill in the Maryland General Assembly this year that will give renters more power to fight bad housing conditions in court.

The full City Council is also set to vote on the amended renters’ rights bill, called the Strengthening Renters’ Safety Act, though it’s not immediately clear when that vote will take place. If passed, the bill would take effect in January 2026.

The bill seeks to increase renter safety by establishing specific criteria to determine the city’s worst buildings and mandating biannual inspections for them. It also includes requirements for landlords to actively provide proof of inspection to tenants — a move the MMHA, which represents rental property owners and managers, opposes. They’ve proposed instead that reports should be provided upon request.

When the legislation was originally introduced in 2023, Baltimore’s housing authority said staffing and budget issues were among the reasons why the measures would not be enforceable.

Landlords, however, say flaws with the current system already make it cumbersome to comply.

“The current system is not user-friendly for landlords,” said Kathy Howard, general counsel at Regional Management, a company that manages properties in and around Baltimore.

Regional Management has been in a yearslong struggle to get properties licensed, she said, but a DHCD web portal that launched in 2022 has made it labor-intensive for the company to keep their units’ registrations up to date.

More awareness needed

Six years in, the lack of awareness about the rental license system and the protections it’s supposed to ensure for renters remains an issue, said Shah.

In March, multiple Highlandtown buildings caught fire and killed three people, including two young children. The building where people died had an expired license and no working smoke alarms, one of the key requirements on a rental license inspection. The owner and management of the building did not comment on why the building had an expired license.

If a property is not licensed, the tenant has the right to withhold rent and to not be evicted. If the property is licensed, but the tenant has reason to believe it shouldn’t be, things are more difficult.

The ordinance lists several reasons why a license could be revoked, but doesn’t provide a formal process for a tenant to hold landlords accountable for having a license when they shouldn’t. Hawley, the department spokesperson, said tenants “should report that concern using the city’s 311 system.”

Tenants can reach out to DHCD, but there is no legal mandate that would put pressure on the agency to rescind a license, independently audit a property or demand a new inspection. On several occasions, Gowing has done that outreach herself on behalf of clients, but said she’s had mixed results.

The DHCD said it was not immediately able to provide figures on the number of rental licenses that have been rescinded.

“The tenants have no right to challenge a license when it was issued fraudulently,” said Gowing.

Some community organizations are leading efforts to create awareness through tenants’ rights training and a tenants’ right to counsel project.

Victor, the Brooklyn dad, said he never knew his apartment was unlicensed and didn’t know he could look it up online. If it wasn’t for his attorney and another government worker he met by coincidence, he said he probably wouldn’t have found out.

Despite getting the case against them dismissed, Victor’s family decided to move out of their Brooklyn apartment. Living in Glen Burnie for about four months now, they pay more than twice what they did before, but in a recently renovated apartment with a landlord Victor considers himself lucky to have.

The rent he paid for the previous, unlicensed apartment, however, wasn’t recovered. It is unclear whether the apartment has been fixed. And, as of this month, the property remains unlicensed.