This is a student-driven proposal, and I'm a longtime non-student renter, but I certainly support it. For renters like I, continued tenancy should be presumed, short of eviction, so there's no reason for landlords to show a unit at all, much less nine-plus months in advance (as they currently can). If tenants need to assert their rights over maintenance problems or other issues, this should allow for better outcomes, since landlords won't be able to immediately lease the space to others (or threaten to). There will be landlord pushback, but please keep tenant interests in mind. The rental vacancy rate here is minuscule, so four months is enough time to find tenants. Yes, some renters want the security of signing a lease well in advance, but on the other hand this will help graduate and professional school students who don't gain acceptance to U-M until late winter or the spring, by which time only the worst fall rentals are typically available now. And they can be really, really bad.