#1 - Extract from lease: The tenant should record all

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (B)

This stimulus, a lease extract, allows two specific situations wherein the tenant is not required to pay for damage: that which is on the pre-existing damage report, and that which is beyond a tenant’s control. The question requires that we find one of these exceptions.

Answer choice (A): This answer choice fails on both counts, so it is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. Since the damage was beyond the tenant’s control, it does not matter that is was not on the pre-existing damage list.

Answer choice (C): Since this scenario has damage that was not on the list, and appears to have been within the tenant’s control, the tenant would most likely be responsible in this case.

Answer choice (D): As the fixture was present when the tenant moved in, it would not have been on the pre-existing damage list, and since the damage was clearly within the control of the tenant, the tenant would be responsible.

Answer choice (E): Regardless of what should have been on the list, if the paint stains were not on the pre-existing damage list, the tenant is responsible.

[LSAT2018]

The second sentence would be a conditional because of the indicator 'except'?
So to diagram it:
Not Pay for Damage Not Recorded → Damage Beyond Tenant's Control

So would it be possible to diagram the entire stimulus as:
Not Pay for Damage → Not Recorded and Damage Beyond Tenant's Control

[James Finch]

Hi LSAT 2018,

This question shouldn't require diagramming (the time spent can really slow you down and hurt your score if time is an issue), but one could diagram the stimulus:

A biconditional between damage recorded and the tenant paying for it:

Recorded TP

But the more relevant conditional relationship is the one with multiple conditions:

If not recorded and within the tenant's control, the tenant pays, diagrammed as:

Recorded + TC TP

and the contrapositive:

TP Recorded or TC

Sure enough, the contrapositive is what we're looking for, and given in Answer Choice (B). This question is also a good example of how the LSAT is testing aspiring lawyers on skills that will be useful during the practice of law. Laws are composed of elements that must be satisfied to reach a certain outcome: here, the tenant's advocate wants the tenant to avoid paying their landlord for damages, and may do so by showing that the damage was either recorded or caused by occurrences beyond the tenant's control.

Hope this helps out!