Law Commons^™

The Scarlet Letter "E": How Tenancy Screening Policies Exacerbate Housing Inequity For Evicted Black Women, Yvette N.A. Pappoe

Journal Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented health and economic crisis in the United States. In addition to more than nine hundred thousand deaths in the United States and counting, another kind of crisis emerged from the pandemic: an eviction crisis. In August 2020, an estimated thirty to forty million people in America were at risk of facing eviction by the end of the year. Black women renters faced a higher risk of losing their homes than other groups. At the onset of the pandemic, the federal government implemented eviction moratoria to prevent the evictions of tenants who were unable …

A Fresh Start: Sealing Eviction Records In Rhode Island, Katie Gradowski

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Pro Se Plight: A Comprehensive Review Of Access To Justice Initiatives In Ohio Landlord-Tenant Law, Caleigh M. Harris

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Takings Clause? The Implications Of Cedar Point Nursery V. Hassid For Property Rights And Moratoria, Benjamin Alexander Mogren

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In part, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution holds that “no person . . . shall [have their] private property . . . taken for public use, without just compensation.” In Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “a California regulation that permits union organizers to enter the property of agricultural business to talk with employees about supporting a union is unconstitutional.” The purpose of this Note is to discuss what Cedar Point Nursery means generally for the future of Takings Clause analysis and will argue that Cedar Point Nursery should be seen as a …

Leases As Forms, David A. Hoffman, Anton Strezhnev

All Faculty Scholarship

We offer the first large scale descriptive study of residential leases, based on a dataset of ~170,000 residential leases filed in support of over ~200,000 Philadelphia eviction proceedings from 2005 through 2019. These leases are highly likely to contain unenforceable terms, and their pro-landlord tilt has increased sharply over time. Matching leases with individual tenant characteristics, we show that unlawful terms are surprisingly likely to be associated with more expensive leaseholds in richer, whiter parts of the city. This result is linked to landlords' growing adoption of shared forms, originally created by non-profit landlord associations, and more recently available online …

New Rules In The Amended Jordanian Landlords And Tenants Act No 17/2009, Ahmad Ali Al Ouwaidi, Abdelnaser Zeyad Hayajneh

UAEU Law Journal

The Jordanian legislature amended the Landlords and Tenants Act No 17, 2009; it includes new rules which represent a significant change in the relationship between landlords and tenants. In an analytical and critical approach, this research explores these new rules, especially the rules concerning the gradual termination of lease contracts concluded before 31/8/2000, in a period from 12/21/2010 to 12/31/2015. The rules also stipulate an increase in the rent ranging from 1% to 6%. The study furthermore discusses the landlords' rights such as the new procedures set in the amended Tenant Act, by which the landlord can undertake in case …

A Crisis Within A Crisis: Nyc Landlords Ramp Up Harassment Of Vulnerable Tenants In Wake Of Pandemic, Joseph A. Jungermann Iii

Capstones

Already burdened with more sickness and death during the pandemic than other New Yorkers, low-income tenants and tenants of color are particularly vulnerable to additional harassment by landlords who seek to take advantage of the city's health and financial crisis to force them out. Brooklyn residents Delene Ahye, Dexter Lendor and Sonny Singh tell stories of their landlord, landlord agents and building manager’s harassment, which began during the pandemic’s most dangerous spikes in New York City. These forms of harassment included intimidation, abusive construction, constant buyout offers and biometrics and surveillance technology.

Link to capstone project: https://joseph-jungermann.medium.com/a-crisis-within-a-crisis-nyc-landlords-ramp-up-harassment-of-vulnerable-tenants-in-wake-of-e09d67968208

Critical Developments In Housing Policy - Symposium Comments, Kat Meyers, Cheryl Gonzales, Edward Josephson, Andrew Scherer

Articles & Chapters

Professor Scherer's talk starts on page 245

Law School News: 'Force Multipliers': Ri Tenant Stablization Project Aims To Help Eviction And Homelessness Issues For Low-Income Tenants 04-06-2018, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Evicted: The Socio-Legal Case For The Right To Housing, Lisa T. Alexander

Lisa T. Alexander

Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a triumphant work that provides the missing socio-legal data needed to prove why America should recognize housing as a human right. Desmond's masterful study of the effect of evictions on Milwaukee's urban poor in the wake of the 2008 U.S. housing crisis humanizes the evicted, and their landlords, through rich and detailed ethnographies. His intimate portrayals teach Evicted's readers about the agonizingly difficult choices that low-income, unsubsidized tenants must make in the private rental market. Evicted also reveals the contradictions between "law on the books" and "law-in-action." Its most …

Evicted: The Socio-Legal Case For The Right To Housing, Lisa T. Alexander

Faculty Scholarship

Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a triumphant work that provides the missing socio-legal data needed to prove why America should recognize housing as a human right. Desmond's masterful study of the effect of evictions on Milwaukee's urban poor in the wake of the 2008 U.S. housing crisis humanizes the evicted, and their landlords, through rich and detailed ethnographies. His intimate portrayals teach Evicted's readers about the agonizingly difficult choices that low-income, unsubsidized tenants must make in the private rental market. Evicted also reveals the contradictions between "law on the books" and "law-in-action." Its most …

No Place Like Home: Tenant Harassment And The Frailty Of Housing Court, Adam M. Shrier

Capstones

Residents across New York City—particularly those living in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartments—are subject to concerted, persistent harassment at the hands of landlords determined to replace them with higher-rent paying tenants or tenants who will remain compliant in response to the landlords’ negligence or illegal actions. Although tenant harassment is illegal in New York City, the laws and penalties of New York City Housing Court have proven to be an ineffective system for tenants and insufficient deterrent against landlords who stand to make significant financial gains from deregulating apartments and who often get slapped with little to no fines for their …

Repulsed By Rap? Renewal Options Are Singing A Different Tune: An Analysis Of Bleecker Street Tenants Corp. V. Bleeker Jones, Llc, Jonathan M. Vecchi

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pay Up Or Get Out: The Landlord's Guide To The Perfect Eviction, Matthew Sackel

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strictly Liable Landlords Could Mean The Pound For Pit Bulls, Caitlin Biggins

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Fall Of The Implied Warranty Of Habitability, David A. Super

Faculty Scholarship

Growing concern about poverty in the late 1960s produced two sweeping legal revolutions. One gave welfare recipients rights against arbitrary eligibility rules and benefit terminations. The other gave low-income tenants recourse when landlords failed to repair their homes. The 1996 welfare law exposed the welfare rights revolution's frailty. Little-noticed by legal scholars, the tenants' rights revolution also has failed, and for broadly similar reasons. Withholding rent deliberately to challenge landlords' failure to repair is unduly risky for most tenants in ill-maintained dwellings: either moving to better housing is a better option or the risk of retaliation is too great. The …

The Rise And Fall Of The Implied Warranty Of Habitability, David A. Super

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Growing concern about poverty in the late 1960s produced two sweeping legal revolutions. One gave welfare recipients rights against arbitrary eligibility rules and benefit terminations. The other gave low-income tenants recourse when landlords failed to repair their homes. The 1996 welfare law exposed the welfare rights revolution's frailty. Little noticed by legal scholars, the tenants' rights revolution also has failed, and for broadly similar reasons.

Withholding rent deliberately to challenge landlords' failure to repair is unduly risky for most tenants in ill-maintained dwellings: either moving to better housing is a better option or the risk of retaliation is too great. …

The Extent To Which "Yellowstonre Injunctions" Apply In Favor Of Residential Tenants: Who Will See Red, Who May Earn Green, And Who May Feel Blue?, Hon. Mark Dillon

Hon. Mark C. Dillon

Difficulties in the residential and commercial real estate markets have caused an influx of cases in the New York State courts by which banks seek the foreclosure of delinquent mortgages and landlords seek the eviction of tenants that are in default of rent payment obligations.

New York State has long recognized "Yellowstone injunctions" in the context of commercial leases, where tenants preemptively obtain court orders enjoining their landlords from terminating their breached leases. The concept is named after its case of origin, First Nat. Stores, Inc. v. Yellowstone Shopping Center, Inc., which was decided by the state's Court of Appeals …

Federal Hill Protest Targets Landlords, Donna M. Hughes Dr., Melanie Shapiro Esq

Donna M. Hughes

Protecting The Good-Faith Tenant: Enforcing Retaliatory Eviction Laws By Broadening The Residential Tenant's Options In Summary Eviction Courts, Lauren A. Lindsey

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place: Landlords, Latinos, Anti-Illegal Immigrant Ordinances, And Housing Discrimination, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

In the face of federal inability to effectively police our national borders and to remove unauthorized immigrants, many local governments have recently sought to take measures into their own hands by passing anti-illegal immigrant ("AII") ordinances. These ordinances usually contain a combination of provisions restricting housing, employment, and public benefits for unauthorized immigrants, among other things.This Article focuses on AII provisions that are targeted at private rental housing, which typically take the form of sanctions against landlords who rent to unauthorized immigrants.

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, …

Cotenants Trumping Cotenants: The Eighth Circuit Takes A Diverse Stance On Cotenants' Authority Under The Fourth Amendment, Benjamin M. Johnston

Missouri Law Review

Reluctantly, John Adams mailed the envelope addressed to his wife, Abigail, knowing the contents could bring about his death. This letter, mailed to his "dear friend," contained a description of his pleas for independence to the Continental Congress, a description that if located by the British, would most certainly subject him to charges of treason. Immediately after Mr. Adams dispatched his letter, he was approached by a British intelligence officer requesting to review the letter. Mr. Adams denied the officer's request and sent him on his way. Later, when the letter arrived to the unsuspecting Abigail, it was accompanied by …

Attorneys As Debt Relief Agencies: Constitutional Considerations, Marisa Terranova

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

New Urbanist Zoning For Dummies, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Income Tax Issues For Lessors And Lessees (Slides), Susan T. Edlavitch, Robert D. Schachat

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Income Tax Issues For Lessors And Lessees, Susan T. Edlavitch, Robert D. Schachat

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Discriminatory Housing Statements And §3604(C): A New Look At The Fair Housing Act’S Most Intriguing Provision, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Today, more than three decades after the 1968 Fair Housing Act ("FHA") banned such behavior, blatant discrimination—often accompanied by racist slurs and other explicitly discriminatory statements—continues to plague America's housing markets. The FHA not only outlawed discrimination in most housing transactions on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin, but also contained a specific prohibition, § 3604(c), banning all discriminatory housing statements. Unlike the FHA's more traditional prohibitions against discriminatory refusals to deal and discriminatory terms and conditions, § 3604(c)'s ban on discriminatory statements has not been the subject of much litigation or debate.

Part I of the …

Should An Illinois Tenant Get The Benefit Of The Landlord's Insurance?, John Dwight Ingram

Northern Illinois University Law Review

This article examines whether a landlord's insurance coverage should extend to cover his or her tenant's personal property from loss or damage caused by the tenant's negligence. Although the courts are divided on whether to allow the landlord's insurer to recover from the tenant through the insurance contract's subrogation clause, the author argues careful and thoughtful lease drafting can avoid or eliminate liability issues between the landlord and tenant. Such drafting gives the courts a clearer picture of the exact relationship between the parties and who should bear the risks involved under a given set of circumstances.

Rent Control Price Fixing: Another Look At The Emperor's New Clothes, Robert N. Markle

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.