(a) Tenants in a building may establish a Tenant Association for purposes of this Chapter 49A by providing their landlord a petition signed by tenants representing at least 50% of the occupied units in the building certifying that they desire to form a Tenant Association, and identifying the Tenant Association. For purposes of this subsection (a), a “petition” may include individual written statements signed by said tenants, or some combination of individual and collective written statements. Once certified, a Tenant Association shall serve as the organizational representative of the tenants as set forth in this Chapter 49A unless or until either (1) a new Tenant Association representing a greater number of occupied units in the building has been certified, or (2) the Tenant Association has been suspended for a failure to timely recertify under subsection (e).
(b) Tenant Associations shall hold regular meetings open to all building residents, and shall elect officers to serve for two-year terms. An officer may continue to hold over after the expiration of their term unless a resident requests an election, in which case an election shall be held within 60 days.
(c) Landlords and Tenant Associations shall confer with each other in good faith regarding housing services and conditions, community life, landlord-tenant relations, rent increases, and other issues of common interest or concern. Examples of conferring in good faith include, but are not limited to, maintaining a designated point of contact, engaging in regular communications, responding to reasonable requests for information, allowing participation by non-resident advocates, providing adequate time for limited-English speakers to obtain translation services, providing and adhering to timelines for addressing habitability concerns, and negotiating and putting agreements into writing. In addition, a Landlord may not prohibit a tenant from allowing a Tenant Association representative to attend meetings involving the Landlord and one or more tenants.
(d) A landlord must on written request of a Tenant Association attend, either themselves or through their representative, at least one Tenant Association meeting per calendar quarter, though more frequent attendance at the request of the Tenant Association is permitted. A landlord or landlord’s representative must remain in attendance at the meeting until all agenda items are complete, unless the meeting extends for more than two hours, in which case the landlord or landlord’s representative may withdraw from the meeting and request that the remaining items be continued to a subsequent meeting. The meetings shall occur at a mutually convenient time and place. To request that a landlord or their representative attend a meeting, the Tenant Association shall send the landlord a written request at least 14 days in advance; alternatively, if the Tenant Association meets at a regularly scheduled time and place, then the Tenant Association may send the landlord a single standing request to attend meetings for the duration of the calendar year.
(e) Not more than once every three years, the landlord may request in writing that the Tenant Association recertify itself under the petition procedure set forth in subsection (a), in which case the Tenant Association shall have 60 days to recertify itself. If the Tenant Association does not timely recertify itself upon the landlord’s request, it shall be temporarily suspended, and the requirements in this Section 49A.4 shall cease to apply, until such time, if any, as the Tenant Association is recertified, or another Tenant Association is certified in accordance with the requirements in this Section 49A.4.
(f) This Section 49A.4 shall not apply to buildings where the landlord is a non-profit organized under 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3).