Landlord Retaliation

Some unfortunate tenants who assert their rights find themselves rewarded with a landlord payback—whether in the form of petty harassment, a rent hike, or an all-out termination and eviction. The good news for most tenants is that landlord retaliation is illegal in most states—landlords who illegally retaliate can be stopped and sometimes assessed financial penalties. The bad news is that asserting your rights can be a hassle, involving court fights and lots of time.

Ideally, you'll screen potential landlords so you can weed out bad apples. But what if it's too late for that or you're blindsided by the landlord's behavior, and you don't want to move? What are your options if your request for repairs has been met with the sudden loss of your parking spot? Your efforts to organize other tenants into complaining about lack of security in the building have earned you a termination notice? Your complaint to the health department about mold in your apartment has led to a rent increase? Here's what you can do if you suspect retaliation.

State Laws Against Landlord Retaliation

In almost all states, it's illegal for a landlord to retaliate against tenants for acting within their legal rights.

You've exercised your legal rights if you've ever:

• complained to a building inspector, fire department, health inspector, or other governmental agency about unsafe, unhealthy, or illegal living conditions
• joined up with other tenants and presented your views collectively, for example by joining or organizing a tenant union, or
• availed yourself of self-help strategies allowed by your state or local law, such as deducting money from the rent and using it to fix defects in the rental unit, or even withholding the rent entirely for an uninhabitable unit.

It's important to understand that the anti-retaliation laws will shield you only for those activities that are mentioned in your state's statute. Not all states protect tenants for all three types of actions mentioned above. To see what's covered, see your state laws prohibiting landlord retaliation. For example, in California, a tenant who circulates a petition demanding beefed-up security cannot be retaliated against; but that same activity would not be protected in Arizona, since "exercise of a legal right" isn't included in Arizona's statute.

What Is Landlord Retaliation?

Once you know your legal rights, you need to know what your landlord cannot do in response to your exercising a legal right. The kinds of retaliatory acts covered by state statutes include:

• terminating a month-to-month tenancy or refusing to renew a lease, and following up with an eviction lawsuit if you decide to stay and fight
• increasing the rent, and
• decreasing services, such as locking the laundry room, draining the pool, removing cable access, or canceling the security service or doorman.

Of course, few landlords are dumb enough to announce a retaliatory plan. Chances are that they will cloak their real motives in a cover-up, such as the sudden need to rent to a long-lost aunt or their financial inability to keep up with the just-decreased service. It's up to you to prove that it's retaliation.

Is the Landlord's Retaliation a Big Deal?

If you think a rent hike or other negative treatment is motivated by your assertion of a legal right, you can fight back. But before you do, ask yourself the following questions:

Are you covered?

Check your state statutes to make sure that you have anti-retaliation protection for what you've done. Not everything is protected (plus several states don't have an antiretaliation statute).

Have you exercised your legal rights in good faith in order to be protected?

If you withhold rent in violation of state law, circulate a negative petition about your landlord that is patently inaccurate, or file endless, groundless complaints with government agencies, no judge will prevent a landlord from taking appropriate action (such as not renewing your lease or terminating your rental agreement),

How soon after your action did the rent increase or negative treatment come?

Obviously, the shorter the interval between your exercise of a legal right and the date of a increase in rent or negative treatment, the more suspicious it becomes. Some state laws assume retaliation when a landlord's actions occur within a certain time period after what you've done.

How large was the rent increase; how onerous was the mean move?

Judges are more likely to view a large rent increase (rather than a small one) as the landlord's way to punish or drive away a troublesome tenant. Ditto with reductions in services.

Does the rent increase or nasty move affect you alone, or does it apply to many others?

Your chances of proving a retaliatory motive will be greatly increased if you can show that you alone, but not tenants in similar units, received the negative treatment.

Is your landlord known for repeatedly and seriously trampling on tenants' rights?

Your landlord's reputation is certainly a relevant factor if you contemplate challenging a rent increase. You can learn whether the landlord is a frequent visitor to landlord-tenant or small claims court by asking the local tenants' organization or even your fellow tenants. The judge might tell you that this information is irrelevant and won't be considered—but you might want to share it anyway, then listen politely while the judge gives you a little lecture on the rules of evidence.

How disruptive or expensive, from the landlord's point of view, was your exercise of a legal right?

It's easier to win the cases in which you can convince a judge that the landlord has a strong motive to get even. Did you cause the landlord considerable time, expense, aggravation, or embarrassment? For example, if you complained to the local health department that your housing is uninhabitable because the roof leaked, and the department ordered your land­lord to put on a new roof, that's an expensive job that your land­lord might resent highly. This anger could well prompt a retaliatory rent hike, you'll claim.

Similarly, an accusation of discrimination against your landlord, even if the landlord ultimately defeats it, could easily generate strong feelings of bitterness and a desire for revenge. On the other hand, your isolated request for a necessary and inexpensive repair is far less likely in the eyes of a judge to motivate your landlord to retaliate.

Keep in mind that you don't need to be perfect. An honest mistake made during an otherwise valid attempt to exercise your rights usually won't deprive you of the protection of your state's anti-retaliation statute. For example, suppose that in response to a broken heater in the winter you withhold rent without complying strictly with your state's notice requirement. Your angry landlord is likely to call you on your error and demand the rent. If you pay it, can the landlord then terminate your tenancy? Assuming that the heater was truly broken and your mistake relatively minor, you'll be in a good position—but not a guaranteed one—to argue that you still deserve the benefit of your state law. Of course, you'd be far better off to follow the withholding rules carefully in the first place.

Proving Landlord Retaliation

If you're determined to fight back by filing suit or hunkering down and defending against an eviction, there's one more issue you need to think about. How do you prove your landlord is trying to retaliate against you? In the real world, landlords are rarely so foolish as to say directly, "If you complain to the housing department, I'll evict you!" Instead, they're likely to stick it to you for a trumped-up reason, hoping to mask the fact that the real motive is to get rid of a tenant whom they regard as a troublemaker. Common examples of cover-ups that are really retaliations are:

• an unexplained termination that follows shortly after a long-term tenant's legitimate decision to withhold the rent
• a refusal to renegotiate a lease following a tenant's complaint to the health department, and
• sending a termination notice alleging misuse of common facilities after a tenant has used the common room to bring tenants together to fight a proposed rent increase.

Fortunately, however, many states give tenants an edge when it comes to unmasking illegal reasons to end a tenancy. In many states, the landlord is presumed to be retaliating against you if a tenancy is ended (or services decreased) within a certain amount of time after your exercise of a legal right— typically 6 months, but sometimes 90 days or a year. This means that it will be up to the landlord to prove to the judge, should you end up in court, that their motives were not retaliatory.