Law Commons^™

Covid-19 And The Rise In Commercial Real Estate Bankruptcies: The Path To Reach The Goals Of Bankruptcy Code §365(D)(3), Jefferey Kirwin

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article will explore and explain the two approaches circuit courts use when § 365(d)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code is at issue and will analyze the best approach in the context of COVID-related increase in commercial tenants’ bankruptcy claims. Specifically, this article will analyze how each approach affects the parties by explaining which party is protected at the different stages, and will explain what and when a tenant must pay a landlord. This article will then describe options each party could pursue at different stages in the bankruptcy and outline how each option affects the payment to the landlord. Lastly, …

Wisconsin's 2011 Act 108, Legislative Inaction, And Severe Racial Disparity: A Recipe For A Fair Housing Violation, Taylor N. Haefele

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

When individuals are released from prison, the biggest predictor of whether they will reoffend or successfully reenter society is whether the recently released individual has access to stable housing. Unfortunately, nearly every avenue to housing requires passing a criminal background check. Recognizing this as posing a nearly insurmountable barrier to accessing stable housing upon release from prison, Seattle, Washington; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and San Francisco, California have all enacted ordinances regulating the use of background checks to help ensure access to stable housing for formerly incarcerated individuals. Madison, Wisconsin, and other Wisconsin cities had similar ordinances that regulated the use of …

Changing The Rule That Changes Nothing: Protecting Evicted Tenants By Amending Cleveland Housing Court Rule 6.13, James J. Scherer

Cleveland State Law Review

Renting is on the rise, with all households seeing an increase in the prevalence of renting a home versus owning one from 2006 to 2016. As rental rates rise, so too do the rates of eviction. The detrimental effects of eviction are numerous and can be self-reinforcing, with a single eviction decreasing one’s chances of securing decent and affordable housing, escaping disadvantaged neighborhoods, and benefiting from affordable housing programs. All this was before the coronavirus pandemic that devastated jobs and savings accounts across the nation.

One of the biggest impacts that eviction has on renters is a public court record. …

Alleviating The Harms Of Substandard Housing To Wisconsin Tenants: Correlating Rent With Assessed Property Value, Ellen Matheson

Marquette Law Review

Like other cities across the nation, Milwaukee utilizes a mix of regulatory,

statutory, and common law tools to address the problem of substandard rental

housing. This Comment examines the efficacy of those legal tools, in the

process demonstrating that existing remedies offer insufficient protections to

tenants in need of habitable housing. This Comment then proposes a novel

legal strategy that is designed to ameliorate the problem of low-quality,

overpriced rental housing: amending Wis. Stat. § 66.1015 to permit

implementation of a “rent-value correlation rate”—giving municipalities the

option to cap monthly contract rent as a percentage of the assessed property

value. …

Screened Out Of Housing: The Impact Of Misleading Tenant Screening Reports And The Potential For Criminal Expungement As A Model For Effectively Sealing Evictions, Katelyn Polk

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Having an eviction record “blacklists” tenants from finding future housing. Even renters with mere eviction filings—not eviction orders—on their records face the harsh collateral consequences of eviction. This Note argues that eviction records should be sealed at filing and only released into the public record if a landlord prevails in court. Juvenile record expungement mechanisms in Illinois serve as a model for one way to protect people with eviction records. Recent updates to the Illinois juvenile expungement process provided for the automatic expungement of certain records and strengthened the confidentiality protections of juvenile records. Illinois protects juvenile records because it …

Hb 346 - Tenant Retaliation Protection, Joseph N. Guardino, Megan A. Kirk

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act prohibits landlords from taking retaliatory action when tenants exercise their rights or express habitability concerns. The Act provides for several authorized tenant actions that notify and hold landlords responsible for fixable property defects. If the landlord attempts to deprive the tenant of the use or enjoyment of the premises because the tenant expressed habitability concerns, the Act finds a prima facie case of retaliation. The Act specifically protects landlord action when a tenant damages property or is delinquent in rent. The Act provides for civil penalties against landlords who have retaliated under the statute.

Maryland's Medical Marijuana Law: Transactional And Ethical Perspectives For Real Estate Practitioners, Nicole M. Lacoste Folks, Lawrence F. Haislip, Matthew L. Kimball

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

The congruence between Federal and state laws relating to marijuana, 2 which has existed for generations, is unraveling. In recent years a number of states have reduced or eliminated criminal penalties for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana;3 twentythree states have established a state law exception for medical marijuana; 4 and Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon now authorize the retail and personal growth, sale and possession of marijuana as a matter of state law.5 Maryland has lately joined the list of states purporting to create exceptions or safe harbors for those wishing to engage in the manufacture, …

Varying The Variance: How New York City Can Solve Its Housing Crisis And Optimize Land Use To Serve The Public Interest, Nathan T. Boone

Brooklyn Law Review

As Millennials repopulate American cities and seek jobs in creative industries, housing affordability has risen to the forefront of urban policy battles. Major conflicts exist between homeowners, renters, municipal governments, and growing industries regarding the proper way to grapple with an influx of new capital, both financial and human. New York City is a prime example of this problem. Housing cost increases have exceeded income increases, leaving a large percentage of New Yorkers “rent burdened.” This note seeks to examine a likely cause of the present problem: zoning and variance systems that limit the ability of private land owners to …

Mi Casa Es Su Casa: The Benefits Of A Hud Mediation Program For Resolving Housing Accommodation Or Modification Disputes Between Landlords And Tenants With Disabilities, Adam Knobler

Pepperdine Law Review

After first providing a background on federal housing laws that prohibit discrimination based on disability, this article then proceeds to describe and analyze the remedies available to tenants who have experienced disability discrimination. The article concludes that, not only are such remedies as filing a complaint or pursuing litigation difficult and time-consuming, they could also damage the long-term relationship between the parties and preclude the possibility of creative remedies that satisfy the needs of both parties. The article finishes by proposing that HUD develop an agency-wide mediation program based on the model of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) mediation …

The Eastside Exhibition Rule: The De Minimis Exception For Trifles And Trivialities In Partial Actual Evicition Cases In New York, Stephen L. Ukeiley

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Right To A Decent Home, Stephen Nathan Dorsi

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Housing Law Handbooks: Legal Self-Help For The Intended Beneficiaries, Helen Shapiro

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toa Construction Co., Inc. V. Tsitsires, Jessica Tong

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

First Hudson Capital, Llc V. Seaborn, Kristopher Ferranti

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Preemption Of Rent Regulation Under Firrea, Eric William Hess

Fordham Urban Law Journal

After hundreds of savings and loan institutions became insolvent in the 1980s, Congress enacted the Federal Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act, which was designed to provide affordable mortgage financing to low and moderate income individuals, and to dispose of the assets of the failed savings and loan institutions. Among the powers granted by FIRREA to the FDIC was the ability to disaffirm or repudiate leases held by insolvent institutions if those leases are deemed burdensome. In "Resolution Trust Corp. v. Diamond," the United States District Court wrongly held that FIRREA cannot be construed to allow Federal preemption of State …

Due Process

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Converting Nonpayment To Holdover Summary Proceedings: The New York Experience With Conditional Limitations Based Upon Nonpayment Of Rent, Stephen Ross

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article examines the development in New York law of both the landlord's right to terminate a lease for a tenant default and the tenant's right to preserve his tenancy by curing a rent default. It finds that, despite some cases to the contrary, case law in New York favors the landlord's reserved right to terminate over the tenant's historic right to cure, at least as to commercial tenancies." It concludes that, in both residential and commercial tenancies, landlords should not have this termination right' and that the legislature should enact appropriate legislation to achieve that objective. Part II of …

The Residential Tenant's Right To Freedom Of Political Expression, James E. Lobsenz, Timothy M. Swanson

Seattle University Law Review

This Article outlines the arguments to be made on behalf of residential tenants who display political signs and who encounter threats of eviction, rent increases, and other forms of landlord opposition. In Section II, the Article describes the development of the general principles of constitutional law applicable to disputes between property owners and tenants who wish to use the property owners’ premises as a forum for the expression of the tenants’ ideas and beliefs. Tracing the history of the United States Supreme Court rulings in this area, the authors analyze the waxing and waning of first amendment speech rights, the …

New Judicial Approaches To Maintaining Housing Quality In The Cities, Eugenia K. Manning

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Virtually every member of the urban community is a party to a landlord-tenant relationship. As the general tenor of urban life in America changes, so must the laws which govern the urban dweller. For years the doctrine of caveat emptor prevented the tenant from forcing the landlord to make necessary repairs or to retain the leased premises in a habitable condition. The doctrine of constructive eviction afforded him little relief; and housing and sanitation codes, while achieving a measure of success, were generally ineffective. Only when conditions because unbearable did the law protect him. Increasingly, however, the trend has been …

Tenant Remedies For A Denial Of Essential Services And For Harassment -The New York Approach

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The New York Legislature has enacted a series of statutory remedies intended to afford tenants protection when a landlord fails to provide adequate services. The Legislature has been faced, however, with the problem of finding a proper balance between the property rights of the landlord and the human rights of the tenant. As a result, each of these remedies has severe shortcomings which render its operation difficult and at times virtually impossible.