- Court: Oregon Court of Appeals
- Area(s) of Law: Landlord Tenant
- Date Filed: 01-06-2021
- Case #: A169557
- Judge(s)/Court Below: Armstrong, Presiding Judge, and Tookey, Judge, and Aoyagi, Judge
- Full Text Opinion
Plaintiff, the landlord, entered into an agreement with Defendant, tenant, which stated that the right to terminate the tenancy resided with Defendant. Plaintiff contended the trial court erred because the Oregon Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (ORLTA) only permits three types of tenancies and that the Plaintiff’s right to terminate a tenancy is a statutory right that cannot be waived. Defendant asserted that both parties have an absolute right to contract and include terms that differ from those in ORLTA. The Court looked to the law that was in effect at the time plaintiff purported to terminate the defendant’s tenancy, ORLTA, and to whether the agreement was barred by public policy. Under the previous version of ORLTA, there was no prohibition on a landlord's right to contract away their termination rights. Therefore, the parties were permitted to agree to the terms in question, and "neither the ORLTA nor the public policy prohibits the Plaintiff from contracting away the right to terminate a tenancy." Affirmed.