Summary — North Dakota SB 2237 (69th Legislative Assembly)
Status and timeline
- Introduced: March 11, 2025 (received by Secretary of the Senate; sponsors: Senators Braunberger, Barta, Cory; Representatives Hendrix, Schneider).
- Legislative history (selected): committee hearings March–April 2025; passed both chambers (recorded May 23, 2025); sent to Governor May 27, 2025; signed by Governor June 20, 2025; becomes effective September 1, 2025.
- Note: an early procedural entry in the docket shows a failed second reading (yeas 5, nays 41) on February 4, 2025; the later actions above reflect subsequent consideration and final enactment.
Purpose / intent
- To give the North Dakota Department of Labor (the labor commissioner) a formal enforcement role for certain landlord–tenant statutory duties by authorizing the commissioner to receive tenant complaints, investigate alleged violations of specified landlord/tenant statutes, and impose disciplinary actions against landlords who fail to comply.
Key provisions
- New statutory section (to NDCC ch. 34‑05) authorizes the labor commissioner to:
- Receive and investigate complaints filed by tenants.
- Take disciplinary action against a landlord for failure to comply with NDCC sections 47‑16‑20 and 47‑32‑02, or rules the commissioner adopts to enforce those sections.
- Procedural protections and requirements:
- Before imposing discipline, the commissioner must notify the landlord in writing of the reason disciplinary action is being considered and provide a reasonable time to correct (cure) the violation.
- The required notice must be delivered personally or sent by registered or certified mail.
- Any disciplinary action taken under this new authority must comply with chapter 28‑32 of the North Dakota Century Code (the state’s administrative procedure provisions).
- Conforming change: a new subsection is added to NDCC § 34‑05‑01.3 listing this receiving/investigatory/disciplinary authority.
Who is affected
- Landlords subject to NDCC §§ 47‑16‑20 and 47‑32‑02 (existing landlord–tenant statutes).
- Tenants in North Dakota, who gain an administrative complaint avenue in addition to civil remedies.
- The labor commissioner/Department of Labor, which will administer complaint intake, investigations, and disciplinary proceedings and may need to adopt implementing rules and possibly allocate staff/time to enforcement.
- Potential downstream effects on courts (fewer or different civil cases) and on landlords’ regulatory/compliance costs.
Unspecified or open elements
- The bill authorizes “disciplinary action” but does not itself specify the types of penalties, remedies, or sanctions; those details are left to rules or other law.
- The text ties enforcement to sections 47‑16‑20 and 47‑32‑02 but does not alter those statutes’ substantive terms; readers should consult those sections to understand the specific landlord obligations this enforcement authority targets.
Practical impact
- Establishes an administrative enforcement path for tenant complaints against landlords, with required notice and cure opportunity and with actions subject to administrative procedure safeguards. This is likely to increase oversight and may improve compliance with the cited landlord‑tenant provisions, while shifting some dispute resolution from courts to the Department of Labor’s administrative processes.
