In American
landlord–tenant law
Landlord–tenant law is the field of law that deals with the rights and duties of landlords and tenants.
In common law legal systems such as Irish law, landlord–tenant law includes elements of the common law of real property and contract. ...
, a retaliatory eviction is a substantive defense and affirmative
cause of action
A cause of action or right of action, in law, is a set of facts sufficient to justify suing to obtain money or property, or to justify the enforcement of a legal right against another party. The term also refers to the legal theory upon which a ...
that can be used by a
tenant against a
landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, t ...
. If a tenant reports sanitary violations or violations of minimum housing standards, the landlord cannot
evict the tenant in retaliation for reporting the poor housing conditions.
History
Retaliatory eviction first appeared as a tenant's defense against eviction in ''
Edwards v. Habib'' (1968), where a tenant was evicted after reporting sanitary code violations. The
D.C. Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...
recognized that the eviction was unjustified because it was in retaliation for the reporting of violations.
As a defense
The defense of retaliatory eviction was first recognized in the D.C. Circuit case ''
Edwards v. Habib''.
West Virginia
In the case ''Imperial Colliery Co. v. Fout'', the
West Virginia Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is the state supreme court of the state of West Virginia, the highest of West Virginia's state courts. The court sits primarily at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston, although from 1873 ...
reaffirmed that retaliatory eviction was a valid defense against eviction, but added the condition that the retaliation must be against a tenant's exercise of a right incidental to their tenancy. Therefore, a defense of retaliatory eviction did not exist for a tenant evicted after participating in a labor strike.
California
1942.5 is the
California Civil Code
The Civil Code of California is a collection of statutes for the State of California. The code is made up of statutes which govern the general obligations and rights of persons within the jurisdiction of California. It was based on a civil code or ...
that establishes a renter's rights and defines a Retaliatory Eviction in the state of California.
As a cause of action
Retaliatory eviction was first recognized as a cause of action in the California case ''Aweeka v. Bonds''. The case recognized the inequity of forcing the tenant to wait until they were confronted with an
unlawful detainer action to bring up retaliatory eviction as a defense.
[{{cite web, url=https://www.law4youth.com/%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%99-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9B%D7%A8/ , title= תביעה לפינוי מושכר Wednesday, 23 December 2020 ]
References
Landlord–tenant law
Real property law in the United States