The laws were put into place to protect tenants from landlords who were to quick to evict someone for random reasons. When it comes to the pencil, Walmart has no claim on it once it has been sold, however, with an apartment tenant and landlord enter into an agreement. The landlord is responsible for upkeep of the property and the tenant is required to pay rent. If the landlord refuses to make repairs to save money and then a tenant files complaints against him, removing those laws makes it all to easy for the landlord to remove the tenant and get someone into the unit who is more concerned with having housing than fighting the system. There does need to be a better balance of the laws and until it is reached we are left with the system that the bad landlords created in the 70s and 80s