Tenant’s Rights to Habitable Premises Property Outline

 Tenant’s Rights to Habitable Premises

1. Terminology:
   1. When a LL and tenant enter into a lease, the LL promises neither she nor anyone else will interfere with the tenant’s lawful possession. This promise, implied in all leases, is called the covenant of quiet enjoyment.
   2. If the LL violates the warranty of quiet enjoyment, the vacating tenant is said to have been constructively evicted by the LL’s conduct.
   3. Constructive eviction-a failure or interference on the LL’s part with the tenant’s intended enjoyment of the premises, in such a way that the tenant is deprived of enjoyment of those premises.
      1. elements:
         1. intentional (actual or inferred) acts of LL that breach a duty owed
         2. cause substantial interference with the tenant’s enjoyment or make property unfit for what is was leased.
         3. TENANT VACATES THE PREMISES
         4. within a reasonable time after the LL’s action

b. A tenant who meets these elements is thereafter relieved from the obligation to pay rent.

warranty of habitability-An implied warranty requiring that rental premises be offered and maintained in a physical condition that provides safe, decent, and habitable housing for tenants. Also consistent w/ the idea that LLs should comply with the stds found in bdg. and housing codes enacted my local governments. [don’t have to move out]

1. elements:
   1. LL must have notice of the condition
   2. defect must be substantial
   3. LL must have been given a reasonable time to repair and has not done

constructive eviction-An action whereby the LL renders the property unsuitable for occupancy, either in whole or in part, so that the tenant is forced to leave the premises.