Articles — URLTA

There's been a lot of talk in Lexington about adopting a set of proposals being called the "Tenant's Bill of Rights". That talk sounds good. We're all in favor of rights for everyone - so why not rights for tenants? No one in history worth remembering ever opposes a "bill of rights", right? This crusade is an excellent example of framing an issue to gain sympathy and support from those who don't have the time or the interest to look further into the issues. But here's the truth of the matter: tenants in Lexington already have a "bill of rights"....

Video Course announcement from Stephen Marshall on Vimeo.

One week ago, I got really excited while checking Twitter. Actually, that happens every day. For those of you who don’t use Twitter, I highly recommend it if you’re into breaking news. Twitter is where you read about it first. Sorry for the digression. Anyway, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed last Thursday and saw that the Kentucky Supreme Court had issued an opinion in a landlord-tenant case. And not just in a landlord-tenant case, but in a forcible detainer case. I had found a unicorn! Very rarely do the appellate courts publish opinions on residential landlord-tenant cases, and...

“All the laws favor the tenants” is a phrase I hear often in the rental industry. As a Kentucky attorney who only represents landlords, I spend close to 150 days a year in court advocating for landlords, and many hours consulting and giving advice to landlords on how to structure their leases and applications, and how to deal with their tenants. While my practice is located near two jurisdictions that have adopted the URLTA (Lexington and Georgetown), I do plenty of work in surrounding counties that have not. As a result, I have had to develop expertise in landlord-tenant relationships...

As everyone who’s watched Kentucky Evictions from A-Z knows, the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act (URLTA) is an odd piece of legislation. It was passed into law by the state legislature, but it only applies in a particular city or county when it is adopted by that city or county’s government. As a result, the URLTA only applies in 19 jurisdictions in Kentucky. For a complete list, check out this article.  HB 380 Last week, a bill was filed in the state House of Representatives to change that. House Bill (HB) 380 amends the URLTA to make it apply to...