Tenant Rights and Protection: Do You Know Your Legal Defenses?

The most fundamental tenant right in a residential tenancy is the right to occupy the premises for the agreed lease term without interference by the landlord, and this right includes the right to be free from the landlord's unauthorized entry, the landlord's attempts to physically remove the tenant without a court order, and the landlord's deliberate reduction of essential services such as heat, hot water, and electricity. Tenant-rights and new-york-tenant-rights counsel can evaluate whether the specific terms of the tenant's lease agreement comply with the applicable state and local tenant protection statutes, assess whether any provisions in the lease are unenforceable as contrary to mandatory tenant protection requirements, and advise on the tenant's legal rights with respect to security of tenure, deposit protection, and the covenant of quiet enjoyment.

The table below compares the four principal categories of tenant rights that apply to residential and commercial tenancies, identifies the scope of each right in each context, and identifies the primary legal remedy available to a tenant whose right has been violated.

Standard-lease-agreement and commercial-lease-review counsel can advise on the specific provisions in a residential or commercial lease that expose the tenant to disproportionate legal risk, assess whether any clause purports to waive a right that the tenant is entitled to exercise under the applicable mandatory tenant protection statute, and develop the strategy for negotiating the removal or modification of the adverse clause before the lease is signed.

The warranty of habitability is an implied term in every residential lease that requires the landlord to maintain the rental premises in a condition that is safe, sanitary, and fit for human habitation, and the landlord who fails to repair a condition that constitutes a breach of this warranty is liable to the tenant for a reduction in the rental value of the premises for the period during which the breach persisted. Landlord-tenant and affordable-housing-law counsel can advise on the maintenance and repair obligations imposed on the landlord, assess whether the specific condition of the rental premises constitutes a breach of the warranty of habitability, and develop the legal strategy for compelling the landlord to perform required repairs, including rent withholding, repair-and-deduct, and lease termination for constructive eviction.

The good-cause eviction statutes enacted in an increasing number of states require the landlord to have a legally recognized ground for refusing to renew a lease or for terminating a lease before it expires, and the most important implication for tenants is that the landlord can no longer simply decline to renew a lease without providing a legally sufficient reason. Good-cause-eviction-law and apartment-eviction counsel can advise on the specific legal grounds on which the tenant can challenge a landlord's termination of the lease, assess whether the landlord has complied with the applicable procedural requirements for termination and has a legally sufficient ground, and develop the defense strategy for defeating an unlawful termination or eviction attempt.

Constructive eviction occurs when the landlord's conduct substantially interferes with the tenant's use and enjoyment of the rental premises in a manner that makes continued occupancy unreasonable or impossible, and the most common examples include the deliberate failure to provide heat or hot water, the failure to exterminate a severe pest infestation, and persistent harassment of the tenant. Unlawful-eviction and injunctive-relief counsel can advise on the specific conduct that constitutes an unlawful or constructive eviction, assess whether the landlord's actions have breached the covenant of quiet enjoyment in a manner entitling the tenant to terminate the lease, and develop the strategy for obtaining an emergency injunction to halt the landlord's harassing or retaliatory conduct.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing-related transactions on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability, and a landlord who refuses to rent to a prospective tenant, imposes materially different lease terms, or takes retaliatory action against a tenant because of any of these protected characteristics is liable for compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees. Federal-housing-act and civil-rights-litigation counsel can advise on the Fair Housing Act's specific prohibitions as applied to the tenant's situation, assess whether the landlord's conduct constitutes unlawful discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability, and develop the legal strategy for filing a fair housing complaint and pursuing civil damages.

The security deposit is held in trust by the landlord for the benefit of the tenant during the tenancy, and at the end of the tenancy the landlord is required to return the deposit within the applicable statutory deadline, which varies from fourteen to thirty days depending on the state, and to provide the tenant with an itemized written statement of any deductions for unpaid rent or damage beyond ordinary wear and tear. Tenant-deposit-refund and civil-damages-claim counsel can advise on the specific legal rights of the tenant with respect to the return of the security deposit, assess whether the landlord has complied with the applicable deadline and provided a written itemization of any deductions, and develop the legal strategy for recovering the full deposit plus statutory damages from a landlord who has wrongfully withheld the deposit.

The law firm's integrated tenant protection strategy covers all of the principal areas in which tenants are at legal risk during a residential or commercial tenancy, from the pre-signature review of the lease through the identification and assertion of habitability claims, the defense of unlawful eviction attempts, the prosecution of fair housing complaints, and the recovery of wrongfully withheld security deposits at the end of the tenancy. Landlord-tenant-law and commercial-lease-dispute counsel can advise on the full range of legal protections available to both residential and commercial tenants, assess whether the tenant's situation involves a warranty of habitability violation, an unlawful eviction, a discriminatory housing practice, or an improper security deposit deduction, and develop the integrated legal strategy that most comprehensively protects the tenant's rights.