The Principle Group, L.L.C. v. Smith

Citations

• 2019 Ohio 3598

Syllabus

REAL PROPERTY/LANDLORD AND TENANT: The trial court erred in holding an owner of a limited-liability company liable to a former tenant under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (\FDCPA\) where the owner had filed an action for forcible entry and detainer in the owner's name, instead of in the name of the company: the owner operated and managed the company and acted as the tenant's landlord, therefore, the owner was a creditor, and not a debt collector, under the FDCPA moreover, even though the company, and not the individual owner, had legal title to the property, the owner's conduct in filing the eviction action did not materially mislead the tenant in connection with the collection of a debt, given the four years of business dealings between the owner and the tenant. The trial court erred in holding that the landlord violated R.C. 5321.16 in failing to return the tenant's security deposit: the trial court found that the tenant had paid a $1,000 security deposit, and that the tenant owed the landlord $847 in unpaid rent and $200 for damages to the property therefore, because the amount of damages exceeded the security deposit, the trial court should have concluded that the landlord did not wrongfully withhold any of the tenant's security deposit. The trial court's judgment holding that the landlord breached the lease agreement by filing a premature eviction action against the tenant was not against the manifest weight of the evidence where the landlord had lied about not receiving the tenant's rent, and the landlord had filed the action in retaliation for the tenant's complaints to the city, resulting in the tenant and her children becoming homeless. Because the trial court erred in holding that the landlord wrongfully withheld the tenant's security deposit, and the trial court also erred in determining that the landlord violated the FDCPA, no legal basis exists to support the trial court's attorney-fee award.