Boston resident Dottie G. Guild spent three years and four months in court suing her landlord for the right to affordable housing.

Now, she says she is defending her right to be heard in court at all.

She joined dozens of people both supporting and rallying against Senate Bill 541 before Massachusetts' Joint Committee on Housing and Urban Development on Monday.

The two factions have much invested in SB 541, which would require tenants to put rent in escrow accounts if they claimed code violations by their landlords.

Currently, if a tenant files code violations, he is legally allowed to withhold rent until a judge orders him to pay (which occurs once the code violations have been resolved).

Landlords argue that the bill would rectify the current situation, in which tenants can go months without paying--and then skip town.

If SB 541 passes, even if tenants disappear, the landlords can access their accrued rents in the escrow account.

However, tenants argue that the bill would take away their voice in court, since it requires tenants to have the rent in the escrow account before they can take their landlords to court on code violation charges.

Tenants point out that a landlord could suddenly raise the rent should the tenant claim a code violation. Under SB 541, until the tenant funneled this heightened rent into the escrow account, the tenant's case would not be heard.

The bill, tenants argue, could thus price them out of the court system.

Cheating the System?

Supporters of the bill contend that tenants are currently given the opportunity to live for months rent-free by charging that minor code violations make their abodes uninhabitable.

The bill would only affect these tenants, not the honest ones, they say.

Sen. Robert A. Bernstein (D-Worcester), told the joint committee that this leniency toward tenants discourages many would-be landlords in Worcester from entering the market.

"When a tenant enters into a lease, they agree to pay x number of dollars every month--they don't get a bye or a free pass whenever they feel there are code violation; they get a free pass or damages when violations are decided by a court," he said.