Assignment 2

Landlord Tenant Law

Name

Institutional Affiliation

Landlord Tenant Law

The landlord tenant law governs the relationship between the landlord and the tenants highlight the duties and rights for each. The law helps to solve any disputes that may arise in the course of the rental period (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). The laws governing the relationship between the landlord and the tenants vary with each state, but the concepts are the same with some of the duties and responsibilities remaining the same (Moskovitz, 2016). It is important that the tenants be aware of their rights to so that the landlords do not exploit them, which is the most common case. By renting a house, the tenant and the landlord enter into a legal binding contract in which any party can be sued for breaching the contractual obligations. Comment by Aaronette Carter: Good observation. Make sure you put a page number or paragraph number if it is not a book or a journal for all sources cited..

The legal rights of the landlord include receiving the agreed amount of rent at the agreed time. Failure of the tenant to honor this right may result to landlord suing the tenant or throwing the tenant out of the house. The landlord also has the right to evict the tenant in case the tenet breaches one of the conditions that were initially stipulated in the rental agreement. The law may provide the conditions or they may be drafted by the landlord for his building (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). Such conditions include keeping no pets or no loud music at particular hours of the day. Comment by Aaronette Carter: You may want to consider a different source as the table of contents does not provide substantive information, rather a list of topic that will be covered in the NY Lawyers Practical Skills Series.

The conditions need to be respected with the court approving for the landlord to evict the tenant if otherwise. The landlord also has the right to obtain monetary damages if the tenant destroys the house (Moskovitz, 2016). The landlord also has rights to develop the policies and regulations that should be followed by the tenants.

The tenant also has various rights that protect him/her from being exploited by the landlord. The tenant has the right to end the lease if the premises rented are not opened on time by the landlord and refunded all the payments made for the premises. Additionally the tenant has the right to sue the landlord for unwarranted entrance into the premises under lease. The landlord should only enter the premises after providing a notice of entering the premises for a justifiable course. Comment by Aaronette Carter: What is the legal terminology?

The tenant has the right to be refunded the security fee deposit and can sue the landlord for failing to return the fee. The tenant has the right to a clean house unless it is a single-family premise (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). The tenant has the right to end the lease in case the premises are not safe or the landlord has failed to make some necessary repairs that have already been communicated.

The landlord has the duty to repair all the places that need repair and ensure that the premises are habitable. The landlord also has the duty of refunding the tenant with the deposits and other fees that they had agreed will be refunded at the end of the lease period. Additionally, the landlords have the duty to notify the tenant of any intention to access the premises and provide a justifiable course for the entrance (Humbach, 2009). Similarly, in case of eviction due to other reasons besides the tenant fault, the landlord has a duty to inform the tenant several months in advance in most cases three months.

The tenant has the duty to pay rent as the primary responsibility that must be met during the lease period within the agreed period. The tenant has the duty to inform the landlord of any breakdown in the premises that need repairs (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). The tenant also has the responsibility of keeping the premises clean and not destroying the premises (Moskovitz, 2016). Failure to meet the duties attracts the landlord to evict the tenant, which is enforced by the court.

The landlord had a legal duty to mitigate the damages and his failure to act in timely manner can be used by Roger to claim for damages citing a breach of contract. Although in most cases the lease contract provides that the landlord will not be liable for damaged products arising from fires, leaks, or other accidents in the premises, they have a duty to repair any breakdowns reported in time (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). Comment by Aaronette Carter: What facts in the scenario support your conclusion?

One of the duties of the landlord is to keep the house habitable, which in this case he has failed. The landlord is therefore expected by law to meet his duties and repair the leak which is tied to the legal duty of keeping the premises habitable (Moskovitz, 2016). The court can therefore enforce that the tenant withholds rent for the period and moves out because the landlord is negligent of his duty to keep the house habitable.

The tenant, Roger, had a legal obligation to mitigate the damages since one of the responsibilities for the tenants is to preserve the house in habitable conditions. In this case, Roger breached the agreement to keep the house in good order by hitting it with the baseball bat. Moreover, during the last rainfall case, Roger would have covered the leaking part with something but instead he moved away his properties and knowingly did nothing to avoid the leaking water from getting into the premises (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). Although, Roger had informed the landlord about the damages, he still had the responsibility to preserve the house in a good condition, which he failed. The law can therefore prove that Roger breached the lease contract by his failure to mitigate the leaks. In fact, if Roger had covered the leaking area the water would not have entered the house and hence there would not have been any damaged properties (Humbach, 2009). With no damaged properties, Roger would not have been angry to through the baseball bat that destroyed the wall. Comment by Aaronette Carter: Review the responsibilities of the landlord and tenant in your textbook regarding habitable conditions and what it means. Comment by Aaronette Carter: Review what agreement or covenant was breached regarding the bat. Comment by Aaronette Carter: Be more specific using the facts as to what property you are referring to. Comment by Aaronette Carter: Is this citation part of a quote used in this section? Comment by Aaronette Carter: Who has the burden to prove a case in court? Comment by Aaronette Carter: Be careful mixing the scenario facts and using them as a citation source.

Larry has legal grounds to evict Roger. The legal grounds are that Rogers failed in his duties to preserve the house in good condition and actively destroyed the house. Besides failing to mitigate the leakage, Roger hit the wall with a baseball bat, which destroyed the wall of the house. According to the lease contract, the landlord has the right to evict the tenant if he/she fails to meet any of his duties that are listed in the lease contract (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). Therefore, by Roger destroying the house with the baseball bat, it gives Larry a legal right to evict him out of the house to protect his properties.

In this case, it is the fault of the Roger that gives Larry the right to evict, hence there will be no need of a three months’ notice of eviction. The landlord will however notify Roger about an eviction within any short time possible (Moskovitz, 2016). The notice is needed to ensure that the tenant moves away his property and does not put the landlord in legal issue regarding destroyed or lost properties from a forceful eviction (Humbach, 2009).

Unless Roger declines to remove his properties after receiving the eviction notice, Larry cannot forcefully remove the properties from the house. Although Larry fails to meet his legal right to repair any breakdowns in the house, the destruction of the house by Roger using a baseball bat is what gives him the right to evict Roger.

Roger has a legal obligation to pay for the damages caused in the house. The damage caused by the baseball bat is as a result of Roger’s recklessness with his poor control of emotions (Humbach, 2009). Roger cannot cite his anger with Larry as the cause for the damage and hence will be held liable for the damage.

The contract stipulates that Roger’s responsibilities entail preserving the house in a good condition, which is breached by hitting it with a baseball bat. The act is considered a breach of expected conduct and hence the damage will be charged to Roger (Lebovits, Howard, & Metz, 2016). Any action that is knowingly carried out or omitted by the tenant and results to damage of the leased properties can result to the tenant paying the damages.

Larry is not liable for any direct damages despite his failure to repair the leakages, this because the lease contract protects him from being liable to damages caused by breakdowns in the house. Larry will therefore not be held liable for the destruction cause by the water leakage in Roger’s house (Humbach, 2009). The fact that Roger agreed to the contract with such a stipulation protects Larry from being liable to any damages. Comment by Aaronette Carter: Review Larry’s responsibilities as a landlord in your text and the exercises done in class. Make sure to reread the facts in the scenario.. Don’t add facts that are not in the scenario.

The landlord tenant law ensures that neither the landlord nor the tenant breaches the lease contract. It helps to avoid the exploitation of one party by the other ensuring that order in the society is maintained. The society should be informed of these laws so that people are not caught in wrong by the law as well as to ensure that one is not made to pay for damages that should not be actually paid. It is important that every tenant asks for the lease contract terms from the landlord and reads the regulations before moving into the premises.

References

Humbach, J. A. (2009). Landlord Control of Tenant Behavior: An Instance of Private Environmental Legislation.

Lebovits, G., Howard, D. P., & Metz, J. R. (2016). New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law and Procedure (Table of Contents).

Moskovitz, M. (2016). Two New Case Developments in Landlord-Tenant Law.