THE PRICE OF COMPLIANCE: CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW AS A MEANS TO RECOVER RENT COLLECTED BY UNLICENSED PHILADELPHIA LANDLORDS

By Esteban Rodriguez [PDF]

Renting an apartment can, in some ways, be like buying a gallon of milk. Imagine you are in a supermarket dairy aisle. Being a prudent consumer, you might check the expiration date on the container. Even the savviest shopper, however, would not think to chemically analyze the product to ensure that what they are purchasing is indeed milk. Instead, consumers place their faith in a regulatory scheme, trusting that a system of laws, rules, and consequences are regulating the conduct of producers and merchants. Such rules recognize the obstacles that modern consumers face, including disparities in knowledge between transacting parties, the increasing complexity of products, and the need for a meaningful remedy where it is merited.