Appellate Decision Changes the Balance in Landlord/Tenant Relations

CT Appellate Court reverses eviction case in a ruling that will have long-term implications for landlords and tenants state-wide

July 24, 2006 - Milford - Thousands of Connecticut landlords, large and small, and tens of thousands of their tenants will be affected by a precedent-setting ruling in which the Appellate Court reversed a New Haven Superior Court's decision in a recent eviction case. Tenants who violate their lease under the broad category of nuisance conduct or lease violations will now be held more directly accountable for disrupting the health, safety, and right to peaceful enjoyment of their neighbors.

The legal issues addressed in the case of "Housing Authority of the City of New Haven v. Dawn Martin" include (a) limitations on a tenant's right to "remedy" a lease violation or nuisance conduct, and (b) the tenant's obligation to definitively prove they have remedied the violation in their defense of an eviction action against them.

While landlord/tenant law strives to balance the rights of both parties in a dispute, landlords have been hampered in their efforts to remove tenants who disrupt or endanger their neighbors. Such tenants will no longer simply be able to claim, for example, that they have discontinued the violation. In some cases, that will not matter.

Attorney Robert Chesson, who, along with his law partner G. Adam Schweickert, wrote and argued the appeal for the Housing Authority, said: "It's going to make being a landlord in CT easier when you're dealing with people who aren't following the terms of their lease." He continued: "The Appellate Court agreed with us that there are some things a tenant simply can't fix. A tenant's right to remedy lease violations is not absolute. Now, a landlord has a fighting chance when someone breaks a lease."

The appellate court ruled in favor of the plaintiff and reversed the previous judgment allowing the case to proceed to trial. The court found that: "The trial court's decision necessarily assumes that all breaches are capable of being cured or remedied. The wording of the statute does not support that assumption . the statutory language clearly and unambiguously anticipates a situation in which a violation cannot be cured by a tenant . For this reason alone, the court was incorrect". The appellate court went on to say that "If a tenant claims that a breach can be and has been remedied and is no longer continuing, the tenant should state those claims in a special defense to the summary process action."

About Chesson & Schweickert LLC: The Landlord Law Firm of Chesson & Schweickert focuses on landlord and property management representation and real estate throughout Connecticut. Law partners, Robert W. Chesson and G. Adam Schweickert are members of the American & Connecticut Bar Associations, as well as the American Trial Lawyers Association. The firm represents residential landlords and property managers, and commercial landlords and property managers and has handled more than 3,500 summary process evictions.