Iowa’s Highest Court Enters First Decision on Certain Landlord-Tenant Issues Raised in 2013 Staley Case: Landlords Must Take Note of De Stefano v. Apts. Downtown

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As most landlords are aware, in 2013, the Iowa Court of Appeals entered a decision in the Staley v Barkalow case, which involved a group of tenants who sued their landlord over the content of their lease agreements. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals entered a ruling in favor of the tenants and, among other things, concluded that under the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law set forth in Iowa Code Chapter 562A, “a landlord is liable for the inclusion of prohibited provisions in a rental agreement, even without enforcement, if the landlord's inclusion was willful and knowing” and, in such event, the tenant may recover from landlord the “actual damages sustained by the tenant and not more than three months' periodic rent and reasonable attorney fees.” Thereafter, in 2014 and 2015, the Iowa Court of Appeals (in Amor v. Houser), as well as several district courts, rendered similar decisions. Such courts ruled that certain landlords had violated Iowa law by their mere inclusion of various unenforceable provisions within their leases, and, in those cases, the district courts ruled that various commonly used lease provisions were unlawful for various reasons.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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