Oregon Landlord-Tenant Law: Questions and Resources

Law librarians are asked lots of landlord-tenant questions by public librarians and by law library patrons. Here is our latest list of contacts:

IF YOU HAVE Oregon Landlord-Tenant Law QUESTIONS:

We BLOG about Oregon landlord-tenant law and on a wide range of related issues: renting to relatives, Landlord School, service animals, renting a room in someone’s house, etc. Click on the landlord-tenant law tags below or on the right-hand sidebar.

TELEPHONE CONTACTS:

(Please call to find out customer service hours – these hotlines are often staffed by volunteers so don’t forget to say “thank you!,” which I’m sure you usually say anyway whenever someone helps you out.)

1) Community Alliance of Tenants, Renter’s Rights Hotline: 503-288-0130

2) Legal aid tenant hotlines

a) The Oregon Law Center (OLC) legal aid Tenant Hotline (503-648-7723) serves five counties, Washington, Columbia, Tillamook, Clatsop, and Yamhill). It’s run by the Hillsboro Oregon Law Center.

b) If you live outside these counties: Legal Aid Service of Oregon (LASO) does not have a state wide tenant hotline at this time. Rather, people have to contact their local office by region.

c) Oregon Law Help has a Directory of legal aid programs. (If that link breaks, please just go to the homepage for Oregon Law Help and link to the Directory from there.)

3) Fair Housing Council: 503-223-8197

OREGON LANDLORD-TENANT LAWS:

Oregon Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (RLTA) and FED (forcible entry and wrongful detainer laws):

Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS), Title 10, Sections 90, 91, 105 (FED) and PLEASE, PLEASE USE THE ORS INDEX! for all ORS sections that apply in your specific situation.

IF YOU ARE A TENANT and think you might be headed for a dispute or you just want to know more about your rights:

1) Janay Haas’s BOOK, “Landlord/Tenant Rights in Oregon,” though out of date, is still excellent. So don’t throw yours out and if you see one at a used book sale, consider buying it to keep or to donate.

2) Landlord-Tenant info at Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO). Click on Housing for most current brochures and information flyers. Their Landlord-Tenant Law brochure lists resources and contacts.

3) The Oregon State Bar Landlord-Tenant webpage has lots of information and a list of legal aid contacts.

They also have a lawyer referral service – some landlord-tenant law problems need the attention of a lawyer!

4) Oregon state government website

5) Habitability questions may require other types of research, often starting with your local government’s resources. That habitability blog post’s link to the Oregon State Bar has broken, so use their new one, which is also noted in the blog post’s Comment.

6) Visit an Oregon law library. They will have other print-only or on-site-only databases you can use to research your legal problem.

IF YOU’RE A LANDLORD, see this previous blog post on: Becoming a Professional Landlord

Feel free to add a Comment to this blog post if you know about other landlord-tenant legal research resources.

Unknown says:

February 8, 2012 at 6:22 pm

I gave a 30 day notice to move and on my rental agreement it says that the deposit can be used for rent upon move out and any additional fee would be billed to tenant, so I exercised that right. My landlord tells me that even though it says that, that's not what it's meant for and with that gave me an eviction notice to appear in court. I moved out of the unit before the original date on my 30 day notice and before the court date. When I went to court they dismissed my case. I then get a bill from my old landlord now chraging me for rent and other misc. charges including charging me for the additional days to cover from when I moved to when I actually said I would be out on my 30 day notice. Can they do that? My understanding in court was that since I moved (which is why they were taking me to court- to get the property back), the case was dismissed and that was it. No eviction on my record and no monies owed.