Opinion ID: 2517590
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Rent withholding

Text: The URLTA gives tenants the self-help remedy of rent withholding in specific, limited circumstances. The most prominent example is found in AS 34.03.180. If a landlord deliberately or negligently fails to provide an essential service, AS 34.03.180(a) authorizes the tenant to withhold rent and use the withheld rent to obtain those services or substitute housing. [34] But the tenant's rights under subsection .180(a) do not arise . . . until the tenant has given written notice to the landlord. [35] DeNardo does not rely on section .180, and he does not claim that he used withheld rent to obtain replacement services or substitute housing. The URLTA also excuses tenants from paying rent or permits them to reduce rent payments for various reasons associated with a landlord's failure to deliver possession or with a termination at the tenant's option, or upon constructive total or partial eviction following fire or casualty. Thus, per AS 34.03.160(a), if the landlord fails to materially comply with the rental agreement or AS 34.03.100 in a way that materially affects health and safety, the tenant may choose to terminate the rental agreement, but only after giving written notice. [36] Per AS 34.03.170, if the landlord at commencement of the term fails to deliver possession to the tenant, rent abates until possession is delivered. [37] Per AS 34.03.200(b), the tenant may, after giving notice, terminate the lease if the premises are damaged or destroyed by fire or casualty. But these provisions do not expressly or impliedly allow a tenant in possession to withhold rent and several contemplate or require prior written notice. Alaska Statute 34.03.200(a)(2) is an exception. Per that subsection, if the premises are so damaged by fire or casualty that enjoyment of the dwelling unit is substantially impaired but continued occupancy of part of the unit is lawful, the tenant's rent is proportionally reduced by the diminution in the unit's rental value as of the date of the casualty. That subsection arguably allows a tenant in possession to reduce the rent without giving prior written notice, but there seems to be little danger in that circumstance that the landlord would not have ample prior notice of the event that proportionally excuses rent. DeNardo generally asserts that he made an oral habitability complaint under AS 34.03.100 on March 8 and that the landlord retaliated against him for making that complaint. Alaska Statute 34.03.160(b) allows a tenant to recover damages and injunctive relief for a landlord's noncompliance with section .100. [38] But those remedies do not include the self-help remedy of rent withholding, even though they may result in the tenant defeating a possession claim or obtaining compensatory damages. The only URLTA provision that expressly addresses rent withholding, section .180, requires prior written notice. There is no dispute that DeNardo did not, before he was given the notice to quit, give his landlord prior written notice that there was any defect or condition that affected the apartment's habitability. It is also undisputed that he gave his landlord no prior notice, oral or written, that he was withholding rent for any purpose. DeNardo contends on appeal that he gave the landlord prior oral notice of secondhand smoke before he was given the quit notice and before he was served with the FED summons and complaint. We assume, for purposes of reviewing the summary judgment, that he did so. We must therefore decide whether prior oral notice would suffice to excuse a tenant from being in default in rent for purposes of section .310 if the tenant claims that defects or conditions render his apartment uninhabitable. No provision in the URLTA states that prior oral notice is sufficient to allow the tenant to exercise the self-help remedy of rent withholding. As noted above, the only passage in the URLTA that allows rent reduction without written notice is for a tenant who remains in possession after fire or casualty damage. [39] The only URLTA section specifically permitting rent withholding is AS 34.03.180(a), and per AS 34.03.180(c), subsection .180(a) relief requires prior written notice. We think it is significant that the legislature chose to require the tenant to provide the landlord prior written notice of its failure to provide essential services before the tenant is entitled to relief under AS 34.03.180. Based on the briefing in this case, we are unwilling to conclude that oral notice of infiltration of secondhand cigarette smoke from a neighbor's apartment is sufficient to excuse a tenant from being in default in rent for the purposes of subsection .310(c). As we have seen, the URLTA only grants the remedy of rent withholding for a tenant in possession in limited circumstances, and then only after prior written notice. [40] We are reluctant to read URLTA more expansively absent more comprehensive briefing on the respective rights of landlords and tenants. Moreover, DeNardo only contends that he gave oral notice that the premises were uninhabitable, not that he gave notice that he was withholding rent as a result of the alleged uninhabitability. We decline here, on the basis of the briefing in this case, to hold that a landlord may be liable for damages on a retaliatory eviction claim if the tenant gives the landlord no notice that rent is being withheld as a result of the premises's condition. Potentially distinguishable from the section .310 rights and remedies are the rights and remedies provided tenants by AS 34.03.190(a). Under that provision, a tenant responding in a landlord's action for possession based on nonpayment of rent may counterclaim for amounts recoverable under the rental agreement or the URLTA, and a court may order the rent reduced to reflect the unit's diminution in value during the period of noncompliance. [41] Those are not self-help remedies. The URLTA appears to distinguish between a claim of retaliatory eviction under section .310 (which gives a tenant section .210 enhanced remedies beyond possession) and a counterclaim under section .190. The latter section permits the tenant to counterclaim for any amount under the rental agreement or the URLTA and to offset this counterclaim against rent owed. That section also permits the court to award possession to the tenant if the tenant pays back rent into the court such that he or she is no longer in arrears. We are reluctant based on the briefing in this case to expose a landlord to the enhanced remedies of section .210 on a retaliatory eviction claim simply for evicting a tenant who was undisputedly not current on rent, absent notice that the tenant has a statutory right to reduced rent (e.g., per subsection .200(a)(2)) or is entitled to reduced rent if the tenant makes repairs or obtains substitute housing (e.g., per subsection .180(a)). In short, we decline in this case to interpret the term in default in rent to contain an exception for a tenant who, without giving prior written notice, withholds rent because he is bothered by migration of a neighbor's secondhand cigarette smoke.