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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

Willard v. PARSONS HILL PARTNERSHIP, 2005 VT 69 (2005)

Citation
Willard v. PARSONS HILL PARTNERSHIP, 2005 VT 69 (2005)
Parent Document
Willard v. PARSONS HILL PARTNERSHIP, 2005 VT 69 (2005)
Jurisdiction
Vermont (state)
Effective Date
2005-08-05

Other Sections in This Document (143)

Full Text

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¶25. We are not persuaded by defendants’ argument that the statutory notice provision’s “obvious purpose” is to “assure that the landlord is aware that the tenant considers a condition in the premises to constitute a breach of the warranty of habitability and intends to hold the landlord accountable in damages if the problem is not corrected in a reasonable time.” In defendants’ view, “a landlord may ... be aware of a contaminant in the water supply but may nevertheless believe that the premises are perfectly habitable because the levels of contamination are low, or because the state officials are aware of the contaminant and have permitted continued occupancy and use of the water.” The warranty of habitability does not, however, cover *311minor defects that an ordinary person would grudgingly tolerate or those that a government entity in charge of public health would allow to persist without taking some action to protect the residents. Instead, it covers those defects that materially affect health and safety. 9 V.S.A. § 4458(a); Hilder, 144 Vt. at 160-61, 478 A.2d at 208-09. When, as here, the state’s health department has established standards for safe levels of a contaminant in the residential water supply, has notified the landlord in writing that water in her building exceeds those levels, has imposed a “Do Not Drink” advisory for that water, and has relied on the landlord to notify the tenants and to make reasonable accommodations for a substitute water supply, the landlord has received all the notice the landlord is due. Additional notice from a tenant prior to a lawsuit by that tenant is of little value at that point, and we cannot agree that the Legislature intended to impose such a requirement in cases like this one.