Flashcards Studio

An MPT task memo asks you to draft an opinion letter to Maria, the owner of a neighborhood cafe. Maria wants to know whether she may stop paying rent and terminate her five-year commercial lease because the landlord has failed to repair the building's air-conditioning system. The File includes Maria's email, the lease, photos of portable fans in the dining room, a city inspection notice, and three text messages from the landlord promising repairs. The lease requires written notice and gives the landlord 20 days to cure before the tenant may exercise remedies. Maria has not sent a formal notice, but she withheld last month's rent after several customers left because of the heat.
The Library contains a statute requiring landlords to maintain essential building systems, a case allowing termination after proper written notice and failure to cure, and a case holding that a tenant who withheld rent before complying with a notice-and-cure clause materially breached the lease.
Draft the substance of the opinion letter. Address the proper audience and tone, the likely effect of Maria's failure to give formal notice before withholding rent, the strongest arguments for and against termination, and the practical advice the letter should give Maria about next steps.