Senate panel approves tenant bill

The Judiciary Committee approved AB462 after its author, Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, said tenants on the verge of eviction are being charged bogus legal fees before landlords will accept a rent payment.

Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said she authorzed the bill after seeing the scam firsthand in her job as a legal aid attorney.

Under Nevada law, tenants have five days to pay rent after being served with an eviction. If the tenant doesn't respond to that notice, a final notice can be served on the sixth day and the renter can be locked out on the seventh day.

"It's the quickest procedure in the West," Buckley said.

The problem is that landlords are refusing to accept the rent within the five-day period unless the tenant pays a $75 legal fee to the landlord's attorney, Buckley said.

"You shouldn't be allowed to evict someone because they don't want to cough up an extortion fee," she said.

Buckley added that she knows of only one law firm in Las Vegas that is doing this, but that firm has about 25 complexes it works with. That adds up to thousands of people who could be taken advantage of, she said.

If the landlord accepts the late rent payment, he can no longer evict the tenant. But Buckley said the landlord can still serve the tenant with a 30-day no-cause eviction notice.

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