Politics at the Turn of the Century by Arthur Melzer

Author:Arthur Melzer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2001-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

LANDLORD-TENANT AND BUYER-SELLER

The distinction between legal and social norms is not confined to the employment context but carries over to many other types of situations as well. Landlord and tenant arrangements are one example. Oftentimes a landlord will create a lease that allows her to terminate the tenant at will, or to charge for certain kinds of repairs. Yet the common practice within the building may be for the landlord to take charge of these routine difficulties in ways that are not required by the contract. It is tempting in these circumstances to argue that the nature of the practice in question should be used to displace the legal obligations that were clearly crafted for the duration of the lease. Doctrines of waiver, modification, estoppel, and novation can easily be introduced to usher in the transformation from one legal order to another. That temptation should be resisted at all costs, however, for the separation of legal from social norms is as important in this social context as it is in others. It is not in the self-interest of any landlord to boot a reliable tenant, thereby incurring the costs of finding a suitable replacement. In addition, landlords are constrained by reputation, especially when they have multiple tenants who can congregate in lobbies and elevators. Their decisions are quickly visible to other tenants, and some conscious and systematic deviation from the terms of the social contract can lead to a mass tenant exodus from the building at the end of the individual leases, especially if other nearby units lay vacant. The landlord who knows this will take pains to use the legal remedies only in cases where she is justified.

The effort to constrain the power to evict at the termination of lease is in effect a disastrous alteration of the balance of power in the ongoing relationship. Requiring landlords to renew troublesome tenants, whether under rent control or with public housing, has third-party ramifications. Few good tenants will want to appear in open court to testify against gangs and thugs who frequent the building. Physical proximity makes the risk of retaliation by force far too great. So the bad tenants stay, and the good ones leave. In this regard, one great weakness of public housing is that the ostensible due-process protections (no person shall be denied life, liberty, or property without due process of law) can easily be read to imply that the Constitution prevents termination by a public landlord unless cause is not only pleaded, but proved. The part-private status of the city as landlord is overlooked in favor of its public role. The consequence is that the good tenants go, and the bad ones remain until the building is no longer inhabitable. It all happens because the state cannot run its own operations with the degree of freedom that can be accorded to private landlords (at least those who are not under rent control or similar renewal obligations).

Contracts for the purchase and sale of goods are not always relational contracts, but they often take place in the context of longer business relationships.

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