| Tenant Protected Actions |
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| Landlord Retaliatory Actions |
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| Penalties for Retaliation |
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When Is It Illegal for Landlords to Retaliate in West Virginia?
It’s illegal for West Virginia landlords to retaliate against tenants who assert their rights under the landlord-tenant relationship in the rental agreement (such as reporting the landlord’s failure to maintain the property). A tenant can claim retaliation as a defense against eviction, or can sue the landlord affirmatively, claiming retaliation.
What Can Tenants Do in Response in West Virginia?
West Virginia tenants can respond to landlord retaliation by suing for quiet enjoyment of the property, including as a defense in eviction proceedings. In either case, the tenant can recover monetary damages, and ask the court to modify the lease, cancel the lease, or issue injunctions against the landlord’s behavior.
Sources
- 1 Imperial Colliery Co. v. Fout, 179 W. Va. 776, 781 (W. Va. 1988)
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“We accordingly hold that retaliation may be asserted as a defense to a summary eviction proceeding… if the landlord’s conduct is in retaliation for the tenant’s exercise of a right incidental to the tenancy… rights of speech and association unrelated to the tenant’s property interest are not protected under a retaliatory eviction defense in that they do not arise from the tenancy relationship.” Imperial Colliery Co. v. Fout, 179 W. Va. 776, 781 (W. Va. 1988). See also Murphy v. Smallridge, 196 W. Va. 35 (W. Va. 1996) (holding that retaliatory eviction may be asserted as an affirmative claim and not merely in defense to a landlord’s action for possession)
Source Link - 2 Teller v. McCoy, 162 W. Va. 367, 373 (W. Va. 1978)
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At common law, the default remedies available for a breach of contract or covenant (including rental agreements) are injunctions for specific performance (a judge forcing the offending party keep the terms of the agreement), injunctions for rescission (a judge modifying or canceling the terms of the agreement), and monetary damages. Since there isn’t a statute on landlord retaliation, it falls under the right of quiet enjoyment in West Virginia:
“At common law… the courts implied into leases a ‘covenant of quiet enjoyment’ to relieve a tenant from the obligation to pay rent when he was deprived of possession or disturbed by hostile claimants or defects in title. Under this doctrine, the landlord, through his acts or omissions, was deemed to ‘evict’ the tenant by depriving him of the beneficial enjoyment of the demised premises.” Teller v. McCoy, 162 W. Va. 367, 373 (W. Va. 1978) (internal citations omitted). See also W.Va. Code § 36-4-14 (2022) (“A covenant by a lessor, ‘for the lessee’s quiet enjoyment of his term,’ or a covenant of like import, shall have the same effect as a covenant that the lessee, his personal representatives and lawful assigns, paying the rent reserved, and performing his or their covenants, shall peaceably possess and enjoy the demised premises, for the term granted, without any interruption or disturbance from any person whatever.”)
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