Skip to main content
DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

Javins v. First National Realty Corp., 428 F.2d 1071 (1970)

Citation
Javins v. First National Realty Corp., 428 F.2d 1071 (1970)
Parent Document
Javins v. First National Realty Corp., 428 F.2d 1071 (1970)
Jurisdiction
DC (municipal)
Effective Date
1970-05-07

Other Sections in This Document (106)

Full Text

1,022 chars
Even beyond the rationale of traditional products liability law, the relationship of landlord and tenant suggests further compelling reasons for the law’s protection of the tenants’ legitimate expectations of quality. The inequality in bargaining power between landlord and tenant has been well documented.44 Tenants have very little leverage to enforce demands for better housing. Various impediments to competition in the rental housing market, such as racial and class discrimination45 and standardized form leases,46 mean that landlords place tenants in a take it or leave it situation. The increasingly severe shortage47 of adequate housing further increases the landlord’s bargaining power and escalates the need for maintaining and improving the existing stock. Finally, the findings by various studies of the social impact of bad housing has led to the realization that poor housing is detrimental to the whole society, not mere*1080ly to the unlucky ones who must suffer the daily indignity of living in a slum.48