## Facts

- A tenant rented a single-family house in Ogden, Utah, from the landlord beginning in June 1988, and lived there with three young children.
- Shortly after moving in, the tenant discovered multiple serious defects, including loss of hot water and repeated sewage and water accumulation in the basement producing a foul odor.
- The tenant repeatedly notified the landlord; the landlord made recurring temporary efforts (pumping sewage/water from the basement and relighting the water heater), but the problems persisted for months.
- In November 1988, the tenant informed the landlord she would withhold rent until the sewage problem was permanently resolved.
- City inspectors later found the property unsafe for human occupancy due to lack of a sewer connection and other conditions, identified numerous code violations posing substantial health and safety hazards, and warned the property could be condemned if not remedied.
- The tenant moved out after the conditions were not corrected.

## Issues

1. Whether Utah common law recognizes an implied warranty of habitability in residential leases, permitting a tenant to obtain an offset/abatement or damages for uninhabitable conditions.
2. Whether the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act applies to residential rental transactions and, if so, whether the landlord committed a deceptive or unconscionable act.

## Decision

- The Utah Supreme Court reversed the judgment awarding the landlord the full amount of unpaid rent and denying any offset.
- The court held that Utah recognizes a common law implied warranty of habitability in residential leases.
- The case was remanded for the trial court to determine whether the landlord breached the implied warranty and what remedies were appropriate (including possible rent abatement and damages).
- The court did not issue a controlling decision on the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act question because the tenant’s requested relief could be addressed under the implied warranty theory.

## Legal Principles

- Residential leases in Utah include a common law implied warranty that the premises will be safe, sanitary, and fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and remain so during the lease term.
- The implied warranty imposes an ongoing duty on landlords to maintain habitable conditions, particularly where defects materially affect health and safety.
- Substantial housing code violations affecting health and safety may constitute strong evidence of breach of the implied warranty of habitability.
- A tenant may assert breach of the implied warranty as a defense to an action for unpaid rent and may seek rent abatement/offset and damages, subject to trial-court determination of breach and remedy.
- When relief is available under common law habitability principles, a court may decline to resolve statutory consumer-protection questions unnecessary to the disposition.

## Conclusion

The Utah Supreme Court modernized Utah landlord-tenant law by adopting a common law implied warranty of habitability for residential leases, reversing a rent award entered without considering habitability-based offsets or damages and remanding for findings on breach and appropriate remedies, while leaving the consumer-protection statute issue without a controlling resolution.


Wade v. Jobe, 818 P.2d 1006 (Utah 1991)