A sweeping ordinance designed to tighten oversight on Baltimore’s rental market hit significant legal roadblocks during its first City Council committee hearing Tuesday.

The Rental Dwelling Health & Safety Act, sponsored by Councilwoman Odette Ramos, aims to strip the anonymity from shell companies, mandate public audits of licensed properties, and grant the city power to disqualify negligent housing inspectors.

During the hours-long hearing, residents described living in "deplorable" conditions, including rodent infestations and structural leaks. Housing advocates noted that enforcement failures have left an estimated 46,000 Baltimore row homes unlicensed and below code.

A primary point of contention is the city's reliance on third-party inspectors. Because the city doesn’t have enough housing inspectors, landlords hire private state-licensed inspectors to certify rental units. Samantha Gowing, an attorney with the Public Justice Center, said the system creates a conflict of interest.

“The inspector wants more business, and it's the landlord who's giving them that business, so they have this incentive to overlook issues or pass properties when it shouldn't be passed,” she said.

Ramos argued the city must be able to blacklist inspectors who approve unsafe units. “If we wanted to, let's say there was one that was an egregious violator, and kick them off of our list, we should be able to do that,” said Ramos.

However, the city’s law department warned that such a move may be illegal.

“The problem is they’re licensed by the state to do that work. We can't prevent them from doing what they're licensed to do,” a city solicitor responded.

The bill also calls for the Department of Housing and Community Development to revoke a license if a landlord uses a tenant's immigration status as retaliation. This includes threats to report tenants to law enforcement. The law department argued this would conflict with existing statutes that allow tenancies to be terminated for any reason.

Council members will hold work sessions to address the legal conflicts.

“We need to pass this bill for our residents to have safe, decent, affordable places to live,” Ramos said.