Most advocacy groups
deal only with the
harassment of tenants
by their landlords, and the
limited services they offer
are usually restricted to bare-bones assistance with navigating the contractual relationship between landlord and tenant based on any lease agreement that exists in addition to state and local codes of law. Tenants in some states and cities enjoy more protections than those in others.
It is a luxury to live in a city with
any renter advocacy group at all.

This site is concerned with the harassment of the renting "class," that is the systematic harassment of renters by others who live or do business in the same neighborhoods and seek to gain from the comparatively vulnerable social and legal position of renters.

The phenomenon of renter harassment, at least as expressed in the United States, is a kind of scapegoating usually justified by the perception that renters in the United States do not pay property taxes. This is a misnomer since landlords commonly keep the rent high enough to cover the property taxes, and then some. And regardless of whether renters do or do not "pay taxes," the fact remains that owners who pay their taxes and legally hold properties have the right to lease those properties and the rights to their enjoyment. Leases are contracts that consign certain rights to their holders. The rights to enjoyment that are consigned tend to be similar, with differences based on whether you occupy a house or apartment. Your contract is with your landlords. A challenge to the rights of a renter to enjoy the benefits of his lease is also a challenge to the rights of the owner to lease or otherwise decide the disposition of the property that she owns.
Disclaimer: This website is informational. How you fare in a harassment situation depends on your own resources, including your willingness to do and aptitude for research into the options that are available in your specific situation. The information described here is focused on the harassment of renters by those who are not their landlords, however, some of this information may also be useful in situations of landlord-tenant harassment. The goal of this website is to share information about what other renters in harassment situations have done to protect themselves and to try to end the harassment so that they can enjoy the privileges granted them by lease and under the law. Your mileage may vary.