Rainbow Realty Group, Inc. v. Katrina Carter and Quentin Lintner

Summary

The court held that the parties’ rent-to-buy agreement was a residential rental agreement rather than a land-sale contract, so Indiana’s residential landlord-tenant statutes applied and the plaintiffs violated the statutory warranty of habitability. It reversed the tenants’ deceptive-consumer-sales damages because the plaintiffs lacked the requisite knowledge, the tenants did not establish reliance, and the statute excluded damages claims involving real-property transactions. It also vacated and remanded the attorney-fee award for findings supporting the substantial reduction in fees requested.