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Tenant Landlord Law Information
About Landlords And Tenants
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium,
or land which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called
the tenant.
In the United States, landlord-tenant disputes are governed by state law (not
federal law) regarding property and contracts. State law and, in some places,
city law or county law, sets the requirements for eviction of a tenant.
Generally, there is limited number of reasons for which a landlord can evict his
tenant. Some cities have laws establishing the maximum rent a landlord can
charge, known as rent control.
A rental agreement, or lease, is the contract defining such terms as the price
paid, penalties for late payments, the length of the rental or lease, and the
amount of notice required before either the landlord or tenant cancels the
agreement. In general, the landlord is responsible for repairs and maintenance,
and the tenant is responsible for keeping the property clean and safe.
Many landlords hire a property management company to take care of all the
details of renting their property out to a tenant. This usually includes
advertising the property and showing it to prospective tenants, and then, once
rented, collecting rent from the tenant and performing repairs as needed.
Duties Of The Landlord
The landlord has two common-law duties. The first is to give the tenant
possession of the land; the second is to provide the premises in a habitable
condition - there is an implied warranty of habitability. If landlord violates
either, the tenant can break the lease and move out, or stay and sue the
landlord for damages
The lease also includes an implied covenant of quiet enjoyment - landlord will
not interfere with tenant's quiet enjoyment. This can be breached in three ways.
-
Total eviction of tenant through direct physical invasion
by landlord.
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Partial eviction - when the landlord keeping tenant off
part of the leased property (even locking a single room). Tenant can stay on
the remaining property without paying any rent.
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Partial eviction by someone other than landlord - where
this occurs, rent is apportioned. If landlord leases tenant 100 acres of
land, but it turns out that 40 of those acres belong to another person,
tenant only has to pay 60% of the rent.
Landlord's Tort Liability
Under the common law, the landlord had no duties to the tenant to protect the
tenant or the tenant's licensees and invitees, except in the following
situations:
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Failure to disclose latent defects of which the landlord
knows or has reason to know. Note that the landlord has no duty to repair,
just to disclose.
-
For a short term lease (3 months or less) of a furnished
dwelling, the tenants are treated as invitees, and the landlord is liable
for defects even if the landlord neither knows nor should know of them.
-
Common areas under landlord's control (e.g. hallways in
an apartment building), if the landlord failed to use reasonable care in
maintaining them.
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Injury resulting from landlord's negligent repairs - even
if the landlord used all due care.
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Public use, if the following three factors exist:
-
Landlord knows or should know that the tenant makes
public use of the land (e.g. the land is rented for use as a restaurant
or a store);
-
Landlord knows or should know that there is a defect;
and
-
Landlord knows or should know that the tenant will
not fix the defect.
Duties Of The Tenant
Under the common law, the tenant has two duties to the landlord. These are to
pay rent when it is due, and to avoid waste of the property.
A tenant is liable to third party invitees for negligent failure to correct a
dangerous condition on the premise - even if the landlord was contractually
liable.
More On Tenant Landlord Law:
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