Apartment Owners' Liabilities Under Review

April 22nd, 2008 by Matt DiChiara| Posted in Political Corner | 2 Comments »

As an addendum to our weekly Apartment Rental News Roundup, we wanted to give special focus to a current court case that may affect apartment rentals.

We saw an article over at apartmentmarketingblog.com that should be of significant interest to apartment owners, builders and architects. If the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sides with the plaintiffs, apartment owners, builders and architects would be held liable for an indefinite amount of time for violations of the Fair Housing Act.

The facts of the case are as follows:

A disabled “tester” from the Disabled Rights Action Committee (DRAC) found that a North Las Vegas apartment complex built in 1997 lacked some requirements, such as curb cut-outs, that are mandated by the Fair Housing Act. DRAC thereupon sued the developers, architect and all current and past owners for faulty design and sought retrofits and monetary damages.

The case was originally thrown out by a District Court over the matter now being reviewed by the 9^th Circuit, namely the interpretation of the statute of limitations. At issue is whether the statute of limitations, (2 years under the Fair Housing Act) goes into effect when the building is first occupied or when the violation is first discovered.

DRAC maintains that the statute of limitations should go into effect when the faulty design is discovered, whereas the defendants claim that if that precedent were to take effect, then apartment builders, owners and architects would be held liable for their properties for an indefinite amount of time, even if they are not the current owner.

The case is expected to proceed to the U.S. Supreme Court, notwithstanding the decision of the 9^th Circuit, whose en banc hearing on March 25^th was described my lawyers as acrimonious.