§ 1-2z

Citation: § 1-2z
Parent Document: PPC Realty, LLC v. Hartford, 350 Conn. 347 (2024)
Jurisdiction: Connecticut (state)
Effective Date: 2024-08-12
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10266509/ppc-realty-llc-v-hartford/ ↗

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Although damage from the fire made the apartment
building uninhabitable physically and legally, those two
determinations are not always necessarily one and the
same. For example, the existence of mold growing in
an apartment building might make the building legally
uninhabitable; see General Statutes § 47a-7; but may go
unnoticed by residents who might choose to stay in the
building despite the health risk because they have no
other shelter options. In this scenario, too, it would not
be the underlying cause behind the code violation (the
mold) that prompted residents to move. Rather, if the
defendant, in enforcing its code, ordered that residents
could not occupy the building, the residents would be
displaced as a ‘‘direct result’’ of the code enforcement.
General Statutes § 8-267 (3) (B). This reality under-
scores the shortcomings of the plaintiff’s logic and fur-
ther supports an interpretation of § 8-267 (3) (B) that
considers only code enforcement activities when determin-
ing the cause of displacement under the act.
Thus, we disagree with the trial court that the resi-
dents ‘‘move[d]’’ from the building ‘‘as the direct result
of’’ arson, not ‘‘as the direct result of [the defendant’s]
code enforcement activities . . . .’’ General Statutes
§ 8-267 (3) (B). Rather, under the act, the defendant’s
code enforcement activities displaced the residents of
820 Wethersfield Avenue on March 7, 2019.
II
Next, we consider whether it is procedurally proper
for the plaintiff to claim that the defendant’s lien was
invalid because the displacement of the residents was
not the result of the plaintiff’s violation of § 47a-7.3 The
3
General Statutes § 47a-7 (a) outlines a landlord’s responsibilities and
provides in relevant part: ‘‘A landlord shall: (1) Comply with . . . all applica-
ble building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety of
both the state or any political subdivision thereof; (2) make all repairs and
do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable
condition, except where the premises are intentionally rendered unfit or
uninhabitable by the tenant, a member of his family or other person on the
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