As Hoosier renters, what rights do you have? Different than your landlord's rights

Lafayette, Indiana Journal & Courier reporter Noe Padilla reports on renter’s rights.

On paper, it seems that Indiana renters have some rights. In reality, they have nothing. The idea that tenants will sue their landlord to address repairs is ridiculous. Asking the tenant to take responsibility for enforcing their lease is an unnecessary burden, requiring them to come up with filing fees and taking off work to appear in court.

Report the landlord to the health department? It seems like a good idea, but landlords are often cited and ignore the citations. Health departments don’t have the capacity or ability to enforce citations. And while Indiana does have a statute prohibiting landlords from retaliating against tenants who complain, it happens regularly with no recourse.

Until Indiana joins the 44 other states that allow tenants to escrow or withhold their rent to make repairs, tenants rights will be mythical words on paper.

Angela Moody and Randall Tanksely take a break from cleaning out the backyard of the property they were evicted from. Chaofeng Liu, and adjunct professor at Purdue University in the Department of Statistics, on Monday, June 5, 2023, in Lafayette, Ind. Noe Padilla/Journal & Courier