ArmedBear said:
For silent, invisible, behind-close-doors violations of clauses in boilerplate leases, where there is no damage to the structure, no complaints from other tenants, and the rent is being paid on time?...
Yes. I'm not sure why. Maybe they want to have a reputation for being hard nosed. That might not be a bad thing in some markets.
ArmedBear said:
If the landlord informs a tenant that he has to move out, and he says, "Okay, I'll move out," NONE of the scenario you made up could happen....
True enough. You as the tenant would save yourself a lot of grief if you just move out.
ArmedBear said:
...You're having to invent extreme eviction scenarios, though, because as long as the tenant doesn't actively cause trouble if caught, refuse to leave, refuse to pay, etc., then you can't claim that, other than having to move, he will suffer any great loss -- because he won't....
What I'm describing is the worst case scenario. Other results are possible, depending on how the parties behave and where they see their respective interests. But you also can't predict that. You can't say for sure that a particular landlord is going to be reasonable to deal with, nor that a tenant will gracefully withdraw.
All one can know in advance is the absolute downside if the landlord plays hardball, and the tenant chooses to dig in his heels. You may think that it would not make sense for a landlord to do a thing, so you are guessing that he won't. But you're not the landlord. You don't know what his assessments of the marketing realities are in his locale are. And the landlord may, in fact, be dead wrong about where his interests lie and be walking the path toward ultimate failure in his business. But the fact that the landlord may be stupidly pushing things doesn't necessarily help the beleaguered tenant caught up in the landlord's bloodymindedness.
You're making an awful lot of assumptions about how a particular landlord, and a particular tenant, would act based on how you think they should act. But how they will in fact act will be based on a whole lot of idiosyncratic factors that neither you nor I have any way of knowing or predicting, including personality, personal business philosophy, assessment of market conditions and business acumen. So you're just guessing how the landlord will act. He may be a belligerent moron on the path to business suicide for all you know.
What I have described is the knowable result if the landlord chooses to fully enforce the lease and all his remedies under the lease, and available by law, if the tenant chooses to resist. I have outlined the legal rights of the landlord should he choose to pursue them. I have also outlined the legal risks to a recalcitrant tenant should the landlord be serious about enforcing the lease. How serious a particular landlord may be about enforcing his lease is something that neither you nor I can know for sure.
I don't know what your business experience and background is that has lead you to your conclusions. But in my 30 years of a successful business and legal career, I've seen an awful lot of things and learned that one can't categorically assume in the abstract that people will act in certain ways.