2009 Iowa Code
Title 14 - Property
Subtitle 2 - Real Property - Gifts
CHAPTER 562A - UNIFORM RESIDENTIAL LANDLORD AND TENANT LAW
562A.27 - NONCOMPLIANCE WITH RENTAL AGREEMENT -- FAILURE TO PAY RENT -- VIOLATION OF FEDERAL REGULATION.

        562A.27  NONCOMPLIANCE WITH RENTAL AGREEMENT --
      FAILURE TO PAY RENT -- VIOLATION OF FEDERAL REGULATION.
         1.  Except as provided in this chapter, if there is a material
      noncompliance by the tenant with the rental agreement or a
      noncompliance with section 562A.17 materially affecting health and
      safety, the landlord may deliver a written notice to the tenant
      specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach and that
      the rental agreement will terminate upon a date not less than seven
      days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in
      seven days, and the rental agreement shall terminate as provided in
      the notice subject to the provisions of this section.  If the breach
      is remediable by repairs or the payment of damages or otherwise and
      the tenant adequately remedies the breach prior to the date specified
      in the notice, the rental agreement shall not terminate.  If
      substantially the same act or omission which constituted a prior
      noncompliance of which notice was given recurs within six months, the
      landlord may terminate the rental agreement upon at least seven days'
      written notice specifying the breach and the date of termination of
      the rental agreement.
         2.  If rent is unpaid when due and the tenant fails to pay rent
      within three days after written notice by the landlord of nonpayment
      and the landlord's intention to terminate the rental agreement if the
      rent is not paid within that period of time, the landlord may
      terminate the rental agreement.
         3.  Except as provided in this chapter, the landlord may recover
      damages and obtain injunctive relief for noncompliance by the tenant
      with the rental agreement or section 562A.17 unless the tenant
      demonstrates affirmatively that the tenant has exercised due
      diligence and effort to remedy any noncompliance, and that the
      tenant's failure to remedy any noncompliance was due to circumstances
      beyond the tenant's control.  If the tenant's noncompliance is
      willful, the landlord may recover reasonable attorney's fees.
         4.  In any action by a landlord for possession based upon
      nonpayment of rent, proof by the tenant of the following shall be a
      defense to any action or claim for possession by the landlord, and
      the amounts expended by the claimant in correcting the deficiencies
      shall be deducted from the amount claimed by the landlord as unpaid
      rent:
         a.  That the landlord failed to comply either with the rental
      agreement or with section 562A.15; and
         b.  That the tenant notified the landlord at least seven days
      prior to the due date of the tenant's rent payment of the tenant's
      intention to correct the condition constituting the breach referred
      to in paragraph "a" at the landlord's expense; and
         c.  That the reasonable cost of correcting the condition
      constituting the breach is equal to or less than one month's periodic
      rent; and
         d.  That the tenant in good faith caused the condition
      constituting the breach to be corrected prior to receipt of written
      notice of the landlord's intention to terminate the rental agreement
      for nonpayment of rent.
         5.  Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, a
      municipal housing agency established pursuant to chapter 403A may
      issue a thirty-day notice of lease termination for a violation of a
      rental agreement by the tenant when the violation is a violation of a
      federal regulation governing the tenant's eligibility for or
      continued participation in a public housing program.  The municipal
      housing agency shall not be required to provide the tenant with a
      right or opportunity to remedy the violation or to give any notice
      that the tenant has such a right or opportunity when the notice cites
      the federal regulation as authority.  

         Section History: Early Form

         [C79, 81, § 562A.27] 

         Section History: Recent Form

         95 Acts, ch 125, §6, 7; 2003 Acts, ch 154, §2
         Referred to in § 562A.8, 562A.27A, 562A.29A, 562A.32, 648.3