3.

Seizure of the tenant’s personal property: If a tenant failed to pay

the rent, the common law entitled the landlord to seize the tenant’s
personal property in the leased premises and to hold it until the tenant
cured the default. This was called distress or distraint. Some states
have abolished distress completely; others have substituted a more
limited right, usually requiring the landlord not to breach the peace
and sometimes forbidding landlord self-help altogether. See
Restatement (Second) of Property, §12.1, statutory note.
a. Liens on personal property: One related remedy, provided by
statute, is a lien in favor of the landlord against the tenant’s
personal property on the leased premises, in order to secure
performance of the tenant’s obligations. The landlord has no right
to seize these goods by himself and must file suit to enforce the
lien.

VII. LANDLORD’S OBLIGATIONS AND

TENANT’S REMEDIES
A. Introduction: The landlord’s obligations considered here are either
implied or imposed by operation of law. These and other obligations can
also be imposed by agreement in the lease. The tenant’s remedies for
breach of these obligations are considered in the context of each
obligation.
B. Quiet enjoyment: Every tenant has the right to quiet enjoyment of the
leased premises. A landlord may explicitly promise the tenant quiet
enjoyment, but it doesn’t matter much, because this obligation is also
implied in law. One aspect of this obligation — the landlord’s obligation
to deliver to the tenant the legal right to possession of the premises —
was considered in section III.B, above. Another aspect of this obligation
is considered here: the duty of the landlord to refrain from wrongful
actual or constructive eviction of the tenant. Unlike other lease
obligations, common law made the tenant’s duty to pay rent conditional
upon the landlord’s performance of this obligation.
1. Actual total eviction: A tenant who has been totally ousted from
physical possession of the leased premises — whether by the landlord
or by someone with better title than the landlord — no longer is
obligated to pay rent and may elect to terminate the lease.
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