Law Commons^™

Do Not (Re)Enter: The Rise Of Criminal Background Tenant Screening As A Violation Of The Fair Housing Act, Rebecca Oyama

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Increased landlord discrimination against housing applicants with criminal histories has made locating housing in the private market more challenging than ever for individuals with criminal records. Specifically, the increased use of widely available background information in the application process by private housing providers and high error rates in criminal record databases pose particularly difficult obstacles to securing housing. Furthermore, criminal record screening policies disproportionately affect people of color due to high incarceration rates and housing discrimination. This Note examines whether the policies and practices of private housing providers that reject applicants because of their prior criminal records have an unlawful, …

Exclusion Of Families With Children From Housing, George Palmer Schober

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note attempts to resolve the most significant problems raised by discrimination against children in housing. Part I briefly analyzes the prevalence of child exclusion in different types of housing. It also provides a statistical analysis of the rental housing market to enable the reader to gauge the extent of the problem in one type of housing. Part II discusses policy arguments supporting both those who seek to exclude children and those who advocate government policies forbidding exclusion. Part III then examines the various approaches that states have adopted in this area, as well as federal implications of the issue. …

The Taming Of A Duty--The Tort Liability Of Landlords, Olin L. Browder

Michigan Law Review

For one inclined to reform the first-year curriculum in law schools the most simple and comprehensive solution is to expand the treatment of the law on landlord and tenant, and only then break up into the traditional basic subjects to deal with matters not previously covered. Thereby one could embrace all the traditional first-year subjects except Criminal Law, and a good deal more as well.

The other side of this conceit is that one who approaches the modem law of landlord and tenant from traditional property perspectives encounters particular problems that arise from the margins, or along the frontal thrust, …

Toward A New Theory Of Roman Law, David F. Pugsley

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Landlords and Tenants in Imperial Rome by Bruce W. Frier

The Validity Of Ordinances Limiting Condominium Conversion, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1974, the New York Times ran a front-page story about the dilemma of an elderly woman who lived in a Washington, D.C., apartment building that was being converted into a condominium. On a limited budget, she faced the choice of either finding a new place to live in the tight Washington housing market or paying $2000 down and $422.50 in monthly installments for the same one-bedroom apartment she had been renting for $ 155.00 per month. The woman's situation is not unusual: a federal study estimates that owners have recently converted 60,000 rental apartment units to condominiums, and real …

Modern Legislation, Metropolitan Court, Miniscule Results: A Study Of Detroit's Landlord-Tenant Court, Marilyn Miller Mosier, Richard A. Soble

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article is a description of a study of cases filed and tried in the Detroit, Michigan, Common Pleas Court, Landlord-Tenant Division, during 1970 and 1971. The court is in a large urban center and handles a high volume of cases, in most of which one or both parties appear without an attorney. The impetus for the study was Michigan legislation passed in 1968, which gave tenants additional defenses to summary eviction procedures. The main goal of the study was to observe the effects of the legislation on tenants who were subject to summary proceedings in Detroit. The purpose of …

Landlord And Tenant--Leases--Lease Executed In Violation Of District Of Columbia Housing Regulations Is An Illegal Contract--Brown V. Southall Realty Co., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff-landlord brought an action for possession based on nonpayment of rent in the Landlord-Tenant Branch of the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions. Although the parties stipulated at trial that the rent was 230 dollars in arrears, defendant-tenant contended that the plaintiff was not entitled to possession because the lease was an illegal contract under the District of Columbia Housing Regulations. The trial court rejected this contention and gave judgment for plaintiff. By the time her appeal to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals was heard, the tenant had vacated the premises and no longer desired to contest …

Slumlordism As A Tort--A Dissenting View, Walter J. Blum, Allison Dunham

Michigan Law Review

The persistence of substandard housing in urban centers stands as a challenge to law. There is a pressing need to re-examine whether prevailing legal doctrines are adequate for dealing with the problem and to suggest new doctrines where the old are found wanting. To their great credit, Joseph L. Sax and Fred J. Hiestand in their article "Slumlordism as a Tort" face up to these tasks boldly and vigorously. They conclude that, under existing conditions, it is imprudent to rely on public authorities to enforce housing codes and it is unlikely that legislatures will place sufficient enforcement powers in private …

Slumlordism As A Tort--A Brief Response, Joseph L. Sax

Michigan Law Review

Professors Blum and Dunham begin their comment by accusing us of having a new idea. We plead guilty. Our purpose was to demonstrate that accepted principles in analogous areas of law would support a slumlordism action, not to argue that tort law as presently applied would do so. Indeed, our basic intent was to underscore the myopia of existing tort law perspectives.

Rent Regulations Under The Police Power, Alan W. Boyd

Michigan Law Review

Conditions resulting from the widespread housing shortage caused by the cessation of building during the war have given rise to legislation which must seem startling indeed to much of the legal talent surviving from a generation ago. The outstanding example is to be found in the New York laws which so far have succeeded admirably in eluding the constitutional pitfalls relied upon to nullify them. Three provisions have borne the brunt of the attack. The first prevents the recovery of an unreasonable rent in an action at law, and places the burden of showing reasonableness upon the landlord." Another suspends …