Follow-up Regarding Rental Damages

Some questions and comments from a classmate:

I found a couple of timely articles on ND law and interests that I thought were interesting as to who is responsible in landlord-tenant relationships.

In regard to the first article, are you aware if any other states make it a misdemeanor for a tenant to leave 'x' amount of damage to a rental property?

In regard to another article, I believe it is very much in line with the notion that lease, or rental, agreements are drafted by landlords, thus they are more tailored to suit the landlords needs. Do you know if other states have organizations in place to help protect tenants? From this article, it appears that landlords have better resources, relative to tenants, in order to protect their resources?

I thought these were both quite interesting with regard to ND law and our recent discussion of landlord-tenant relations in class. If you do know how, or if, other states have implemented such policy, or an agency for tenants, respective to the articles, I would be interested to know where ND stands.

Professor's Response:

First, thanks for sharing your thoughts. This is a great start for further discussion. There are other states with laws like the proposed North Dakota law making some tenant damages criminal. Connecticut, for example, has a law that makes intentional damage of more than $1,500.00 to a landlord's property a minor felony; it is a serious misdemeanor if between $250.00 and $1,500.00. There are probably other similar laws out there, as well.

The landlord-tenant law in North Dakota is generally considered on the pro-landlord side of things, although as the articles discuss, landlords do not always have an easy situation. That is true in many places around the country, although (as we'll discuss) there are areas that have adjusted to become much more pro-tenant. New York City has been through the cycle -- it started pro-landlord, became very pro-tenant, and is shifting back to a more pro-landlord area.

Washington, D.C., remains more pro-tenant than many jurisdictions, although there are still several problems in the city. Usually pro-tenant laws come about because of egregious behavior by landlords such that the public demands change. There are some pro-tenant groups out there, but they are usually very underfunded and able to serve far less people than need help. We'll talk about this in class more as we progress into the cases in the residential setting.