Terminating residential leases.

• Author: Taylor, J. Atwood, III
• Position: Letters - Letter to the editor

I read with interest, and frankly some surprise, "The Need for Statutory Change to the Right to Terminate Residential Leases" in the January issue.

The author has slipped into the trap of presuming that more governmental interference in the freedom of parties to contract will improve what she perceives is a problem--that landlords may not be compelled to renew leases. In fact, no such problem exists and, thus, legislative action is unnecessary. The notion that a landlord may be forced by a legislative device to renew a lease when not wishing to do so, irrespective of the landlord's rationale, wrecks freedom of contract and chills the marketplace.

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