Opinion ID: 3149019
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Unpaid Rent

Text: ¶ 41. Landlords also argue that the trial court erred in its post-judgment order by vacating the jury’s award of $20,000 in unpaid rent pursuant to their counterclaim. Landlords contend that the post-judgment ruling should be reversed because: (1) tenants’ failure to pay rent was not connected to the defect in the house upon which their habitability claim and damage award was based; (2) the ruling disregards the habitability statute’s requirement that a tenant prove notice, failure to repair, and materiality before being entitled to withhold rent; and (3) the ruling was based on clearly erroneous factual findings concerning the premises’ furnace and hard-wired smoke detectors. ¶ 42. The trial court’s ruling must be reversed because of our vacation of the jury’s verdict in favor of tenants with respect to their statutory warranty-of-habitability claim. Absent their habitability claim, there is no basis for tenants to withhold rent. Therefore, the jury’s verdict regarding unpaid rent must stand.6 6 We further note, as the trial court pointed out, that during trial tenants did not articulate their post-verdict theory that they were not obligated to pay any rent at all because the premises was never fully compliant with local and state regulations. At the close of evidence, tenants sought a directed verdict on landlords’ counterclaim, but only on the basis that landlords presented insufficient evidence as to the amount of unpaid rent. Tenants did not object to the trial court’s instructions that, with respect to landlords’ counterclaim, tenants had to establish, through an affirmative defense, that they withheld rent because: (1) the premises was not in compliance with the warranty of habitability or with applicable safety codes or regulations; and (2) landlords were given written notice of the noncompliance but failed to remedy the situation. Having failed to object to these instructions, tenants waived any post-verdict argument that they did not have to pay any rent during any period of noncompliance irrespective of whether they or landlords were aware of the noncompliance or whether rent was withheld due to the 21