Legal Obligation of Landlords and Tenants Under the Law

Landlord and Tenant
Name
Institution
Introduction
Introduction
The law stipulates the rights of both landlords and tenants. Although there are federal laws on rental property, most of the laws on the relationship between the tenant and the landlord are structured at the state level. According to Prettyman (2013), landlords are required to ensure that the house is properly maintained by ensuring the services such as plumbing; electricity and heating are fully operational.
This paper examines the legal obligation of landlords and tenants under the law.
Decide whether or not the landlord and the tenant had a legal duty to mitigate damages
In the U.S, the laws obligate landlords to mitigate damages on their rental property. However, this was not always the case because, under the common law, the tenants were obligated to cater to damages mitigation. This means the tenants were required to cater for the cost that was involved in the finding a replacement tenant. This view was held in the common law because it is renting a premise was considered like a contract which could only be broken by finding a replacement (McKinney, 2012).
However, this view has been replaced by the shifting the obligation to the landlords. Under both Federal and state law, the landlords are required to incur engage in the process of finding a replacement and the cost incurred. The landlord is required to mitigate the damages by hiring the services of brokers and advertising the premises (Prettyman, 2013). The landlord is required to engage reasonable efforts to ensure that the premise is found another tenant within a short period after the other tenants have vacated the premise. The obligation of landlords to mitigate damages started back in the 1970s and was enforced through the establishment of the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act. The URLTA has been embraced in approximately 28 states including California, Alabama, Carolina and Texas (McKinney, 2012). The landlord should seek reasonable rates, make necessary repairs and allow any qualified applicant. When the landlord fails to mitigate damages, various measures can be taken including writing to the landlord and reporting to the authority (McKinney, 2012).
Determine whether or not Larry has legal grounds to evict Rogers. Explain why or why not
Larry was not justified to evict Rogers from the property because it was against the law. According to the property law, the tenants have legal right to relocate without notifying the landlords. However, the landlord is bound by th...