A tenant may be entitled to damages due to the landlord’s failure to perform. A tenant’s damages claim may be reduced if the tenant failed to notify the landlord of a defect that the landlord did not know about.1 Written notice of the defect is not required where the landlord had actual notice.2
Pecuniary damages available for a breach of the warranty of habitability include personal injury,3 lost wages,4 and reimbursement for personal property damaged because of the landlord’s failure to make repairs.5
A tenant can also claim nonpecuniary damages when bringing a claim for breach of the lease contract.6 To succeed, a tenant must prove that the lease contract was “intended to gratify a nonpecuniary interest” and that the landlord knew or should have known that failure to prove the unit in appropriate condition would injure that interest.7 Louisiana courts have affirmed that contracts involving one’s home gratify a nonpecuniary interest.8 Mental anguish and other similar nonpecuniary damages are routinely awarded in cases involving uninhabitable rental housing.9
Documentary evidence should be introduced to substantiate a damages claim.10 However, lack of documentary evidence due to a landlord’s breach may not be fatal to the claim.11
- 1La. C.C. arts. 2697, 2688.
- 2Ganheart v. Exec. House Apartments, 95-1278 (La. App. 4 Cir. 02/15/96), 671 So. 2d 525.
- 3Bates v. Blitz, 17 So. 2d 816, 820 (La. 1944) (upholding award of damages for personal injury under Article 2695, the predecessor to La. C.C. art. 2696).
- 4Shubert v. Tonti Dev. Corp., 09-348 (La. App. 5 Cir. 12/29/09), 30 So. 3d 977.
- 5Growe v. Johnson, 2020-0143 (La. App. 4 Cir. 02/17/21), 314 So. 3d 87, 91 (furniture damaged by flooding that was landlord’s fault); Wilson v. Pou, 436 So. 2d 599 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1983) (mildew damage due to air conditioning malfunction); Daspit v. Swann, 436 So. 2d 606 (La. App. 1 Cir. 1983) (fire damage due to electrical malfunction).
- 6La. C.C. art. 1998; see Young v. Ford Motor Co. Inc., 595 So. 2d 1123, 1133 (La. 1992) (interpreting Article 1998 to mean that “if it can be established that the obligee intended - and if the nature of the contract supports this contention - to gratify a significant nonpecuniary interest by way of the contract, and that the obligor either knew or should have known that failure to perform would cause nonpecuniary loss to the obligee, then the requirements for recovery of nonpecuniary damages are satisfied”).
- 7La. C.C. art. 1998.
- 8Ganheart, 95-1278, 671 So. 2d 525; Thomas v. Desire Cmty. Hous. Corp., 98-2097 (La. App. 4 Cir. 07/19/00), 773 So. 2d 755, 764; Mayerhofer v. Three R’s Inc., 597 So. 2d 151 (La. App. 3rd Cir. 1992).
- 9Ganheart, 95-1278, 671 So. 2d 525 ($1,500 for plumbing problem); Gennings v. Newton, 567 So. 2d 637, 641–42 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1990) ($3,500 for lack of water and electricity); Growe v. Johnson, 2020-0143 (La. App. 4 Cir. 02/17/21), 314 So. 3d 87 ($5,000 for mold); Shubert, 30 So. 3d 977 ($15,000-$25,000 each for multiple tenants who survived fire caused by electrical defect); Clofort v. Matmoor, Inc., 370 So. 2d 1305, 1310 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1979) ($45,000 for past and future pain and suffering after tenant fell on defective stairs at leased premises).
- 10Ganheart, 671 So. 2d at 528.
- 11Nickens v. McGehee, 184 So. 2d 271, 276 (La. App. 1 Cir. 1966).