Tenant & Landlord | Foreclosure | Foreclosure While Renting | Foreclosure Glossary | Brochures
Q. A fellow tenant tends to drink too much and then loiter in the lobby area of my apartment building. Doesn't my landlord have a duty to remove him?
A. No, at least under the circumstances as you have described. It has been held, for example, in Barber v. Mid-Towne Associates , that a landlord has no duty
to restrain or control an inebriated tenant who has been observed staggering in the lobby of an apartment building when the tenant has not violated any provision of law or any term of his lease to justify removal from the building's common area. If, however, the tenant is, for example, acting in a loud and boisterous manner, in violation of the tenat's duty to “conduct himself…in a manner that will not disturb his neighbors' peaceful enjoyment of the premises,” then you might be able to bring direct legal action against your fellow tenant.
Q. I have rented residential premises from my landlord for a period of two years. In that time he has always cleared the ice and snow from the driveway and walk. Recently he has failed to do so. Our lease/rental agreement is silent on the subject of snow removal. I am afraid that I will either injure myself or that one of my house guests may be hurt this winter. If that should happen, will my landlord be liable for my injuries?
A. In this situation, it appears that by his course of conduct your landlord has expressly conferred the duty of snow removal on himself. In such a situation, liability usually has been imposed on the landlord. Once the landlord takes on such a duty, it is not clear that he can unilaterally terminate it. In the situation you have described, the likelihood that the landlord will be liable for injuries caused by the snow-covered driveway is strong. In Hammond v. Moon , the Tenth District Court of Appeals held that ordinarily a landlord has no duty to remove natural accumulations of ice and snow from common areas under his control; however, a landlord may assume such duty by express agreement, or create such duty impliedly from a course of conduct. However, there is still the issue of the tenant's use of ordinary care in such circumstances which must be considered. This is especially true since Ohio's adoption of the doctrine of comparative negligence.
Q. When I notified my landlord that I would not be renewing my lease, he sent me a form stating that I would be charged certain amounts from my security deposit if various minor cleaning tasks were not done in my apartment before I moved out. Can he do this?
A. No. A landlord is not entitled to receive damages for repairs made to an apartment when the damages to that apartment resulted from reasonable wear and tear. RC 5321.05 outlines the obligations of the tenant with respect to upkeep and maintenance of an apartment. If you violate those obligations, your landlord is entitled to deduct his damages from your security deposit. If the landlord charges you for items not found in RC 5321.05 or your lease/rental agreement, he has wrongfully withheld your deposit. In Albreqt v. Chen , the court held that a lease clause charging the tenant $60 for carpet cleaning on vacation of the premises, regardless of whether it needed cleaning, was similar to the liquidated damages clause in Riding Club Apartments , and was unenforceable.
Q. My lease contains a clause allowing the landlord to lock me out of my apartment if I get behind in rental payments. Is this a valid provision?
A. No. The law does not countenance self-help in a situation of this type. Self-help has been traditionally viewed as a situation where the landlord enters the leased premises, using no more force than is necessary to make the entrance, and physically expels the tenant if necessary. Besides the fact that this action is specifically prohibited by the terms of RC 5321.15, such a provision also would be unconscionable.
Q. If a tenant intends to withhold rent because of the landlord's noncompliance with RC 5321.04, must that tenant give the landlord written notice of the conditions requiring repair first ?
A. Yes. RC 5321.07 clearly requires that if the tenant intends to take advantage of the rent depositing procedure, he must provide the landlord with written notice of the acts, omissions, or code violations that constitute the landlord's noncompliance with RC 5321.04 or the rental agreement. Additionally, once the rent is deposited, the clerk of courts is required to give written notice of this fact to the landlord.
* Reprinted from Ohio Landlord Tenant Law , 2002 Edition, with permission of West Group. To order this publication please visit http://www.westgroup.com .
