He’s wrong and should resign. The government does not have the right to invalidate a valid contract. The government does not have the right to compel a landowner to provide an apartment with heat, light and water for NOTHING!
RE: The government does not have the right to compel a landowner to provide an apartment with heat, light and water for NOTHING!
Yes, especially when the landowner is STILL being taxed for owning the property and STILL has obligations to pay the mortgage and maintenance.
Centuries of contract law went out the window with the civil rights and fair housing legislation. One fundamental aspect of contracts under common law was that a valid contract must be entered into by all parties willingly and without coercion. When a landlord is forced to rent a property to somebody he would otherwise not willingly rent to, he is entering the contract under the coercive force of government.
IMHO, the next legal principle to fall will be the "reasonable person," standard. Legal arguments will be made in tort cases that resemble the arguments made for doing away with the SAT as a standard for university admission. That is, juries will no longer consider whether a defendant exercised a commonly accepted standard of due care, but whether or not their actions were reasonable according to their race, gender, educational level, financial circumstances etc.
Expect successful people to be held to a higher standard. Deeper pockets have always made attractive targets, and our courts will now make them easier targets as well.