Housing Law Commons^™

All Dogs Are Emotional Support Animals: The Timely Need To Reconsider The Rights Of Renters To Have Dogs Under The Fair Housing Act, Leigh Cummings

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The lack of pet-friendly housing options in the United States and the current web of property-owner-imposed restrictions unfairly prevents renters and lower-income individuals and families from benefitting from dog companionship. The recent confusion and stigma around the term “emotional support animal” has led to misinterpretation of the requirements of a reasonable accommodation request under the Fair Housing Act. Interpreting “assistance animal” under the Fair Housing Act as a blanket classification that applies to all dogs would reverse this current bias. Restrictions should promote responsible pet caretaking, not limit dog ownership. Considering recent heightened protections for dogs in other areas of …

Rights And Remedies: Rental Housing For Low-Income Households In The United States, David Ray Papke, Mary Elise Papke

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The state of rental housing for low-income households in the United States is deplorable. Unaffordable, unsanitary, and insecure, this housing violates the internationally recognized right of housing. While the United States has never formally recognized that right, the right guarantees not only a roof overhead but also affordability, habitability, and security of tenure. Policies and programs seeking to remedy the problems in rental housing might consciously address these aspects of rental housing. Policies and programs of this sort will not be enough to eliminate all problems, but they would alleviate a matter of great embarrassment, namely, the most affluent country …

Expanding The Right To Counsel In Eviction Cases: Arguments For And Limitations Of "Civil Gideon" Laws In A Post-Covid 19 World, Jennifer S. Prusak

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

With the cost of housing rising nationwide and incomes largely failing to keep pace with this increase, the United States is in the midst of interrelated affordable housing and eviction crises. The housing affordability metric that has long been the bedrock of American housing policy is that households should spend no more than thirty percent of their income on housing. This is no longer an attainable goal for many Americans. By 2017, forty-eight percent of renter households were “rent burdened”—they paid more than thirty percent of their income in rent. Over a quarter of American renters, or 11 million …

Patching The Patchwork: Moving The Civil Right To Counsel Forward With Key Data, Maria Roumiantseva

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

While the pandemic has exposed many long-standing realities about the United States, the destructive everyday crisis of eviction is top of mind as moratoria have now expired and rental assistance funds dissipate with no anticipated replenishment. Therefore, though this piece addresses legal representation in civil legal proceedings more broadly, we will start with an eviction story.

It can be taken as fact that not too far from where you are reading this piece, a tenant is facing an eviction unrepresented. She cannot afford a private attorney. She is income eligible for legal aid, but the office near her home …

How Judicial Accounting Law Fails Occupying Cotenants, Phil Rich

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Few law students remember judicial accounting law from their property law course, and it’s hard to blame them. This little-discussed body of law is formulaic and rarely addressed by appellate courts. Judicial accounting law, however, should not be ignored. The law, which allocates equity to cotenants (or, more colloquially, co-owners) of residential property upon partition of that property, guides homeowners’ behavior and shifts wealth between them. This Note argues that state legislatures should reform judicial accounting law to better protect those cotenants living in their homes from partitions brought by cotenants living elsewhere.

The problem with judicial accounting law lies …

Families Belong Together: The Path To Family Sanctity In Public Housing, Mckayla Stokes

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In its 2015 landmark civil rights decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court finally held that the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the United States Constitution guarantee same-sex couples’ marital equality. The Court’s unprecedented declaration that the right to marry is a fundamental right under the Due Process Clause strengthened married couples’ right to privacy because it subjects government actions infringing on marital unions to heightened scrutiny. The Supreme Court has the option to minimize the impact of Obergefell by interpreting the right to marriage very narrowly—as only encompassing the right to enter into a state-recognized union …

An Invisible Crisis In Plain Sight: The Emergence Of The "Eviction Economy," Its Causes, And The Possibilities For Reform In Legal Regulation And Education, David A. Dana

Michigan Law Review

Review of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.

Access Denied: The Tale Of Two Tenants And Building Amenities, Lauren C. Wittlin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A Right To Counsel In Civil Cases In New York State: A Report Of The New York State Bar Association, Laura K. Abel

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

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, …

Overstaying Your Welcome: The Martin Act And Post-Effective-Date Tenants, Kristopher Ferranti

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Jurisdiction

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tenants' Rights In Police Power Condemnations Under State Statutes And Procedural Due Process, Eric Wills Orts

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note explores the legal arguments available to tenants who want to resist arbitrary or unjustified condemnations of their buildings. Part I provides an overview of the legal and constitutional structure of the police power to condemn buildings. Part II analyzes state statutes governing the condemnation of buildings. Focusing on the statutory rights to notice and opportunity for a hearing provided to tenants, Part II concludes that a majority of states provide inadequate protection for tenants facing eviction by condemnation. Part II then proposes statutory reform, based on an approach taken by a minority of states. Part III demonstrates that …

Condominium Conversion Of Residential Rental Units: A Proposal For State Regulation And A Model Act, Bernard V, Keenan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article has several objectives. Part I provides a foundation for discussion by briefly outlining the relationship between the recent history of the rental housing market and those factors prompting the conversion of apartments to condominium status. With this background information, the relevance of conversion legislation is more readily grasped. Part II seeks to establish that state government is the appropriate governmental entity to formulate legislation intended to protect individuals affected by the conversion of rental units. Federal legislation has addressed this specific issue in the relatively unknown Condominium and Cooperative Conversion Protection and Abuse Relief Act of 1980. In …

Illegal Lofts In New York City: Have The Equities Been Balanced, Jay Facciolo

Fordham Urban Law Journal

In New York City today, tens of thousands of people,' primarily tenants, are illegally occupying lofts. These tenants have signed commercial leases, often long-term leases at rents far below the current market rate. The changing economics of loft buildings has led to serious conflicts between landlords and tenants. Landlords have sought to evict tenants before their leases expire, refused to renew their leases or demanded higher rental rates upon renewal. Tenants have withheld rent for extended periods. These conflicts have been taken to the courts, and legislation recently enacted in New York State attempts to resolve these issues for at …

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 …

Emergency Tenant Protection In New York: Ten Years Of Rent Stabilization, Diane Ungar

Fordham Urban Law Journal

New York City's rent stabilization system was designed as an alternative to the rent control system. Rent stabilization looked to the owners for supervision as a way to benefit not only the system but tenants through an informed and experienced administration. Unfortunately, the system has had its fair share of shortcomings as rules have become technical, complex, and ill equipped to address the concerns of tenants. This comment examines the stabilization system's history and its current status. Though the current system has flaws, the flaws can be fixed and must be to protect NYC tenants and owners.

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 …