11.1 General Principles

If a landlord breaches the obligations of a lessor, the tenant may have a claim for money damages in either contract or tort.1  Because courts may classify what you think is a breach of contract claim as a tort claim and apply prescription of 1 year,2  always file within that period if you can. If you intend to prove a housing code violation as part of a warranty of habitability lawsuit, you should introduce a copy of the ordinance into evidence.3

Though the following sections will exclusively examine bases for contractual liability, keep in mind that a landlord may also be liable for negligence for an act or failure to act that causes damages.4

• 1Potter v. First Fed. S & L, 615 So. 2d 318 (La. 1993); see also Fed. Ins. Co. v. Ins. Co. of N. Am., 263 So. 2d 871, 872 (La. 1972) (“It has been recognized by this Court on numerous occasions that when a party has been damaged by the conduct of another arising out of a contractural [sic] relationship, the former may have two remedies, a suit in contract, or an action in tort, and that he may elect to recover his damages in either of the two actions. In such cases, the prescription applicable is determined by the character which plaintiff gives his pleadings and the form of his action.”)
• 2See, e.g., Saylor v. Villcar Realty, LLC, 2008-0035 (La. App. 4 Cir. 11/19/08), 999 So. 2d 61; Singleton v. Simms, 438 So. 2d 633, 635 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1983) (holding that in the absence of a breach of a specific lease provision, an action for damages caused by defects in the leased premises is an action ex delicto with a prescriptive period of one year); Aiola v. DiMartino, 136 So. 2d 151 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1962) (holding that an “action by a lessee against a lessor for damages caused by defects in the leased premises is an action ex delicto and has a prescription period of one year”). But see McCrory Corp. v. Latter, 331 So. 2d 577, 579 (La. App. 1 Cir. 1976) (holding that where landlord breached specific lease provision as well as the statutory warranties of peaceful possession and against vices and defects, 10-year prescriptive period applied).
• 3Cantelupe v. City of Bossier, 322 So. 2d 344 (La. App. 2 Cir. 1975).
• 4La. C.C. art. 2315.