@cjd they're probably going to attack it from the other angle: rent control. That combined with enforcing the expectation that the landlord maintains the property. Imagine a tenant ends up in a bind where a $10,000 plumbing problem emerges. It isn't their fault, but it has to be fixed. You don't want to fix it, or worse, you just don't have the cash for it. So the tenant lays the cash out to do this and then goes "this is coming out of rent." Except... The total cost exceeds the total amount of rent you would have collected from them.

Then they go, "That's fine. When the lease expires, you can pay the remaining balance or I can take the apartment permanently."

Now imagine courts actually agreeing with that kind of demand. Millennials in judicial positions WILL accept that kind of argument. They won't increase property taxes like you're saying. They'll just fuck with landlords openly. Millennials don't hate normies in suburbia anywhere nearest much as they hate fucking landlords.