Issues That May Affect Your Ohio Residential Evictions

tpirealestate • December 23, 2015

As a landlord, it is important to know about a local tenant’s defenses in eviction actions or to separate forcible entry and detainer lawsuits that may be brought by tenants:

  1. Breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment by expressly authorizing or impliedly condoning improper conduct of third parties, including other tenants and their visitors.
  2. Terminating a tenancy for violation of health and safety requirements before giving the tenant a requisite 30 days’ notice to cure.
  3. Summarily denying a request for what appears to be, on its face, a phony disability accommodation without taking the time to determine whether the prospective tenant is actually handicapped.
  4. Evicting violent tenants without determining whether they are handicapped and if a reasonable accommodation of their disability is possible.
  5. Evicting a habitually late-paying tenant without prior notice of the landlord’s expectation that, in the future, payments must be made on time.
  6. Failing to give a full 30 days’ notice of termination of the lease to a holdover tenant.
  7. Terminating a tenant’s utilities or services while the tenant is still in the unit.
  8. Excluding a tenant from his or her premises prior to eviction.
  9. Threatening a tenant in any way.
  10. Seizing tenant furnishings or possessions to recover rent payments.
  11. Creating a “hostile housing environment” by permitting sexual advances on tenants or permitting sexual relations between a landlord’s agent and a tenant.
  12. Retaliating against a tenant who has notified an agency of problems in the unit.
  13. Unlawful discrimination.
  14. Constructive eviction by failing to make substantial repairs to the property.
  15. Wrongfully withholding a portion of the tenant’s security deposit.

Be aware that a tenant has a right to a jury trial in all housing cases, including evictions. Yes, they are rarely requested and judgments are rarely appealed. However, a landlord must be aware that simple evictions and other housing actions always have the potential of exposing a landlord to claims that, if proven, can result in awards ranging from $9,000 to more than $40,000. And trials and appeals can add significantly to what started out to be an affordable attorney fee. In the case of security deposits, landlords are subject to the doubling of compensatory damages and the payment in full of a complaining tenant’s attorney fees. That is why it is so important to have a professional management company with expertise in local housing litigation.

 

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