 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Willard v. Parsons Hill Partnership8/5/2005
ility covers all latent and patent defects in the unit's essential facilities, i.e., those that are vital to residential life. Id. at 160, 478 A.2d at 208. This warranty extends to facilities that are controlled by the landlord, including those that are located in common areas. Id. at 160 n.2, 478 A.2d at 208 n.2.
15. Under Hilder, a complaining tenant has to notify the landlord of the habitability defect and allow a reasonable time for the landlord to correct it prior to suing the landlord for breach of the implied warranty. Id. at 161, 478 A.2d at 209. The notice requirement applies, however, only to defects "not known to the landlord." Id. (quotations omitted). Thus, Hilder permitted suits for warranty breaches resulting from unrepaired or uncorrected defects that the landlord actually knew of, either (1) because an affected tenant had complained to the landlord about the problem, or (2) because of the landlord's superior familiarity with, access to, or control over the essential facility where the defect existed. Plaintiffs' allegations, beginning in 1983, fit squarely into the second category.
16. In 1986, partly in response to Hilder, the Legislature enacted the Residential Rental Agreements Act (RRAA), 1985, No. 175 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, in which it expressed its desire to protect the State's tenant population from unscrupulous and recalcitrant landlords, while striking a fair balance between the rights of landlords and tenants. See Hearing on H.339 Before House Judiciary Comm. 40-43, 1985 Bien. Sess. (Vt. Aug. 21, 1985) (discussing Hilder in the context of then-pending warranty-of-habitability legislation); see also Vt. Tenants, Inc. v. Vt. Hous. Fin. Agency, 170 Vt. 77, 86, 742 A.2d 745, 751 (1999) (recognizing that RRAA has both tenant-protection and landlord-protection provisions).
17. The RRAA, like the common law, implies a warranty of habitability in all residential rental agreements. 9 V.S.A. § 4457. Section 4458(a) requires the tenant to give the landlord "actual notice" of the landlord's noncompliance with its habitability obligations before resorting to the remedies provided by the statute. Actual notice is defined as written notice hand-delivered or mailed to the landlord's last known address. Id. § 4451(1).
18. Although the RRAA does not make any distinction between patent and latent defects, its notice provisions can be logically understood to apply only to patent defects. The notice provision plays an important role in safeguarding the landlord's rights in cases involving patent defects. These are defects that the tenant is most often in a superior position to discover because of his or her daily use and occupancy of the rented premises-especially if the habitability defect occurs inside an individual rental unit. Examples of such defects include a chronically clogged toilet, leaking or frozen pipes, vermin infestation, lack of heat, and crumbling plaster. See Hilder, 144 Vt. at 155-56, 478 A.2d at 206 (cataloguing defects on which tenant based successful warranty-of-habitability claim). As a practical matter, most landlords do not frequently enter occupied rental units unless they are responding to a tenant's complaint. See 9 V.S.A. § 4460 (establishing notice and consent requirements that landlord must satisfy before entering tenant's dwelling). In such cases, the landlord must often rely on notice from a tenant to learn that there is a problem that may materially affect tenant health and safety; these are the cases that present the greatest danger of abuse by dishonest tenants.
19. The statute's notice requirement is designed to ensure that a landlord is not penalized for failing to fix a problem of which landlord had no know
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Vermont Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|