BELL, Chief Judge.
In this case, we are asked to decide whether, under the Consumer Protection Act (“CPA”), Maryland Code (1975,1990 Repl.Vol.) Title 13 of the Commercial Law Article, specifically § 13-301(1), (2) and (3),1 proof of scienter is a prerequisite to [511]*511holding a landlord liable for breach of warranty for injuries resulting from a child’s ingestion of lead-based paint, when the child’s dwelling, at the inception of the lease, contained chipping and flaking paint, in violation of the local housing code.2 The Court of Special Appeals held that scienter is not required and, so, reversed the judgment of the trial court. We shall affirm the intermediate appellate court, but on a somewhat different analysis.
I.
The genesis of this case was a complaint that alleged that five year-old Brandon Hatcher, the respondent, suffered lead poisoning while living in apartment # 310 in an apartment building located at 1411 Division Street, owned by Joseph Benik, the petitioner. Brandon and his family moved into the apartment in January 1990 and in December 1990, an inspection of the apartment revealed that lead paint was present in several areas throughout the apartment. After the discovery of the lead paint, the family moved to another apartment in the same building.
Brandon’s mother received Section 83 assistance to subsidize her rental payments while she and her family lived at 1411 Division Street. Thus, consistent with Section 8 procedures, on January 2, 1990, prior to the family moving into the apartment, an inspection of the unit was conducted by a Section 8 housing inspector. That inspector testified at trial that the apartment passed the Section 8 inspection, which included inspecting each room in the unit for the presence of chipping or flaking paint. Confirming the inspector’s testimo[512]*512ny, the petitioner testified that he had painted the apartment several weeks before the inspection. He also testified that Mrs. Hatcher was in the apartment and inspected it herself before entering into the lease. Further, the petitioner stated that, several months earlier, when she rented another apartment in the same building, Mrs. Hatcher signed a statement that she had received a booklet regarding the hazards of lead-based paint.
The testimony of both the Section 8 inspector and the petitioner was contradicted by the testimony of Chakeda Hatcher, Brandon’s sister. Twelve years old when the Hatch-er’s moved into the unit, Chakeda stated that the apartment was not freshly painted when the family moved in. She described chipping paint on the wall, ceiling, around the door frame, and the windowsills. She also stated that she saw chipping paint in the bathroom and in two bedrooms. Chakeda further testified that she witnessed Brandon with a chalky substance around his hands and mouth after he had been playing near holes located at the baseboard of the apartment. She specifically stated that the holes were present when they moved into the apartment. Finally, Chakeda testified that the petitioner was in the apartment before the lease began, talking to her mother.
Chakeda’s testimony was corroborated by Brandon’s aunt, Eileen Hatcher, who testified that she resided in apartment # 214 the entire time her sister and nephew lived in apartment # 310. Ms. Eileen Hatcher testified that she visited her sister within the first month of her moving into apartment # 310 and observed, at that time, that the unit was not freshly painted. She further stated that, on different occasions, when she visited the apartment, the paint on the windowsill of the middle room and kitchen was peeling and flaking.
On October 17, 1990, Brandon was diagnosed with lead poisoning, having been found to have an elevated blood lead level. At that point, the family moved out of their apartment and into another unit. Brandon’s blood lead level began to decline once the family moved out of apartment # 310. On [513]*513December 3, 1990, the Baltimore City Health Department conducted an investigation at the residence, finding lead paint nuisances in sixteen areas throughout the apartment, around the frames, baseboards, and windows. That inspection and its findings resulted in the issuance to the petitioner of an emergency violation notice and an order to remove the lead paint nuisance.
Suit was filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City4 against the petitioner.5 Although the complaint contained five counts, only two of them, those alleging negligence and violation of the Consumer Protection Act, survived the pre-trial practice. Those counts proceeded to trial before a jury. At the end of the case, the trial court gave the following instruction as to the Consumer Protection Act:
“Plaintiff has made a claim under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. In order to recover damages under this act, the Plaintiff must prove more likely than not the following: One, that at the beginning of the lease of Apartment 310, there was chipping and flaking lead-based paint; and two that Mr. Benik was aware of the chipping and flaking lead-based paint, and also aware that its condition may constitute an unreasonable risk of harm to the tenants. And three, that despite the above, the Defendant, Mr. Benik failed to disclose the hazardous condition to Linda Hatcher at the beginning of the lease. And Four, that Brandon Hatcher was injured as a direct, proximate result of the alleged hazardous condition that existed at the time of the lease; that is chipping or flaking lead based paint. If any of the above elements are missing, the claim hereunder should be decided in favor of the defendant.”(emphasis added).
[514]*514The respondent excepted to this instruction, asking the court to give his proposed instruction instead. The respondent’s proposed instruction did not require the jury to find scienter on the part of the petitioner, that the petitioner be aware that the chipping and flaking paint was lead-based paint or that the condition was an unreasonable risk to the respondent.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of the petitioner on all counts. The respondent noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. In an unpublished opinion, that court affirmed the trial courts evidentiary rulings, but reversed its judgment with respect to the Consumer Protection Act (“CPA”). The intermediate appellate court reasoned:6
[515]*515“Golt [v. Phillips, 308 Md. 1, 517 A.2d 328 (1986) ] holds that these subsections do not require scienter. Richwind [Joint Venture 4 v. Brunson, 335 Md. 661, 645 A.2d 1147 (1994) ] and Scroggins [v. Dahne, 335 Md. 688, 645 A.2d 1160 (1994) ] hold that with lead-paint issues as between a landlord and a tenant, the CPA only applies at the inception of the lease and a landlord cannot be held strictly liable throughout the term of the lease. Reading the cases and the CPA together, we find no prohibition against finding a landlord strictly liable for acts or omissions at the beginning of the lease. Indeed, at the beginning of a lease, landlords are in a better position than tenants to know of any defects within a rental property. We, therefore, hold that the CPA does not always require scienter. Whether there is a viable strict liability cause of action under the CPA in this case can be determined by a two-pronged test: 1) Did the landlord commit an act or omission that falls under one of the CPA’s subsections that does not require knowledge, and 2)Was the act or omission of the landlord at the inception of the lease?”
The petitioner timely filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari, which we granted to consider the important issue this case presents.
II.
The petitioner’s primary argument is that, where the landlord does not have actual knowledge or reason to know of the condition, the CPA does not impose strict liability on a landlord in lead-based paint cases for failing to inform tenants at the inception of the lease that the premises contain chipping or flaking lead-based paint. Relying on Scroggins v. Dahne, 335 Md. 688, 645 A.2d 1160 (1994); Richwind Joint Venture 4 v. Brunson, 335 Md. 661, 645 A.2d 1147 (1994) and Hayes v. Hambruch, 841 F.Supp. 706 (D.Md.1994), aff'd, 64 F.3d 657 [516]*516(4 th Cir.1995),7 he contends that “a required element of any [517]*517claim for personal injury under the CPA based on an alleged omission is scienter, or that the landlord know, or have reason to know, of the alleged hazard or condition.” That is consistent, he maintains, with the common law requirement that a landlord have notice of a defect and the opportunity to correct it before being held liable. Therefore, the petitioner asserts:
“The Court of Special Appeals’ ruling misinterprets prior decisions of this Court, directly contradicts a federal court decision on the same issue, and fails to acknowledge that its decision reverses many years of common law precedent on the issue of notice, without any clear proof of an intent on the part of the legislature to make such a sweeping change ... [and] effectively reverses this Court’s holding in Rich-wind that a landlord is under no duty to inspect premises to determine whether a defective condition exists.”
Further, the petitioner argues that § 13-301(9) of the CPA, by its terms, applies to omissions and expressly requires proof of scienter.8 He maintains that “[a]n omission is the nature of [518]*518the alleged landlord liability in this case” and, therefore, that § 13-301(9) controls, and is dispositive of this case. Unlike § 13-301(9), the petitioner contends, § 13-301(1) and (2) of the CPA, in addition to being much less specific, only apply to affirmative misrepresentations. While conceding that § 13-301(3) does apply to omissions, the petitioner believes that it is too non-specific to be read as eliminating the scienter requirement.
The petitioner argues, alternatively, that any error that the trial court may have committed in instructing the jury with respect to scienter was harmless. Pointing out that the jury found for the petitioner on the negligence count, he submits that, necessarily having weighed the evidence in deciding that count, “[t]he jury could not have found for defendant on the negligence claim without deciding that the paint was in good condition at the inception of the lease.”
As could be expected, the respondent sees it quite differently. He contends that, properly read, Richwind and Scroggins are distinguishable from the case sub judice. Those cases, he asserts, were concerned with conditions arising during the tenancy and not, as in this case, a condition in existence at the inception of the lease. Not only does the Consumer Protec[519]*519tion Act draw that distinction and accord cases in each category different treatment, the respondent argues, but so too does the common law draw the same distinction. He also agrees with the intermediate appellate court, thus disputing the petitioner, that § 13-301(1), (2) and (3) are applicable in the instant case and, as Golt explained, do not contain a scienter requirement. Consequently, the respondent maintains that the Court of Special Appeals got it right.
III.
The issue in this case arises in the context of a jury instruction, the correctness of which this Court must determine. Maryland Rule 2-520(c) provides:
“The court may instruct the jury, orally or in writing or both, by granting requested instructions, by giving instructions of its own, or by combining any of these methods. The court need not grant a requested instruction if the matter is fairly covered by instructions actually given.”
In Sergeant Co. v. Pickett, 285 Md. 186, 194, 401 A.2d 651, 655 (1979), we had this to say about the giving of jury instructions:
“ ‘A litigant is entitled to have his theory of the case presented to the jury, but only if that theory of the case is a correct exposition of the law and there is testimony in the case which supports it.’ Levine v. Rendler, 272 Md. 1, 13, 320 A.2d 258, 265 (1974); Fowler v. Benton, 245 Md. 540, 548-549, 226 A.2d 556, cert. denied, 389 U.S. 851, 88 S.Ct. 42, 19 L.Ed.2d 119 (1967); Dorough v. Lockman, 224 Md. 168, 171, 167 A.2d 129 (1961). Thus, the general rule regarding instructions to the jury has two aspects: (1) the instruction must correctly state the law, and (2) that law must be applicable in light of the evidence before the jury.”
Stated differently, a proposed instruction that is “a correct exposition of the law,” that is “applicable in light of the evidence before the jury,” and is not “fairly covered by the instructions actually given,” Holman v. Kelly Catering, Inc., 334 Md. 480, 495-96, 639 A.2d 701, 709 (1994) (quoting Wegad [520]*520v. Howard Street Jewelers, 326 Md. 409, 414, 605 A.2d 123, 126 (1992)), must be given. Thus, “[i]t is well settled that if, when read as a whole, the court’s instructions to the jury clearly set forth the applicable law, there is no reversible error.” CSX Transp., Inc. v. Continental Ins. Co., 343 Md. 216, 240, 680 A.2d 1082, 1094 (1996), citing Nizer v. Phelps, 252 Md. 185, 202-03, 249 A.2d 112, 122 (1969); Alston v. Forsythe, 226 Md. 121, 135, 172 A.2d 474, 481 (1961).
The instruction in this case required that, in order for the landlord to be liable for breach of warranty under the CPA for the tenant’s injuries, there must have existed in the apartment at the inception of the lease, chipping and flaking lead-based paint, of which the landlord was aware and did not inform the tenant, even though he was aware that the condition may constitute an unreasonable risk of harm to the tenant, and that the chipping and flaking lead-based paint was the proximate cause of the tenant’s injuries. The correctness of that instruction—the determination whether it sets forth the applicable law—requires analysis of sections of the Baltimore City Code, the CPA and our cases elucidating those enactments.
IV.
A.
The purpose of the Baltimore City Housing Code is to: “establish and maintain basic requirements, standards and conditions essential for the protection of the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the public ... in the City of Baltimore; to establish minimum standards governing the condition, use, operation, occupancy and maintenance of dwellings ... in order to make the dwelling safe, sanitary and fit for human habitation”
See, Baltimore City Code (1983 RepLVol.), Art. 13 § 103. To achieve that purpose, the landlord has been required by law to deliver premises to a tenant in a safe and habitable condition. Thus, Article 13, § 702 of the Baltimore City Housing Code provides:
[521]*521“Every building and all parts thereof used or occupied as a dwelling shall, while in use ... be kept in good repair, in safe condition, and fit for human habitation.... ”
Section 703 addresses the standards for the good repair and safe condition of interior walls, ceilings, woodwork, doors, and windows. It defines that standard as requiring that they be kept clean and free of any flaking, loose, or peeling paint. § 703(2)(c). Section 706 similarly provides as to interior wall covering and paint:
“All interior loose or peeling wall covering or paint shall be removed and the exposed surface shall be placed in a smooth and sanitary condition. No paint shall be used for interior painting of any dwelling, dwelling unit, or rooming unit unless the paint is free from any lead pigment.”
The Code prohibits an owner from “leas[ing] or permitting] the subletting to another for occupancy any vacant or vacated dwelling or dwelling unit which does not comply with [its] provisions....” § 1001. Finally, § 9-14.1 of the Baltimore City Code of Public Local Laws (1980) provides:
“In any written or oral lease or agreement for rental of a dwelling intended for human habitation, the landlord shall be deemed to covenant and warrant that a dwelling is fit for human habitation.”
After examining the foregoing provisions of the Baltimore City Code in Brown v. Dermer, 357 Md. 344, 744 A.2d 47 (2000), this Court concluded:
“[I]t is clear that it is unlawful to lease a dwelling with flaking, loose or peeling paint and that no premises are to be leased for human habitation, except those that are fit for human habitation, ie., those that are kept in good repair and safe condition as defined in the Baltimore City Code. To be sure, § 706 prohibits the use of lead-based paint for interior painting in a dwelling unit; however, neither it nor §§ 702 or 703 limits the prohibition of flaking, loose or peeling paint to lead-based paint. To be a violation, all that must be shown is that there was flaking, loose or peeling paint, without any further showing as to the content of the [522]*522paint. Moreover, none of the provisions of the Housing Code premises violation on the landlord’s knowledge of the hazards of lead-based paint.”
Id. at 361, 744 A.2d at 56-57.
B.
The CPA prohibits a person from engaging in “any unfair or deceptive trade practice” in connection with certain enumerated activities. § 13-303.9 Among the activities subject to that proscription are the lease or rental, and the offer for lease or rental, of consumer realty.10 § 13-303(1) and (2). See Golt v. Phillips, 308 Md. at 8, 517 A.2d at 331; § 13-301.
Section 13-301 is relevant to the resolution of this case. As pertinent to the facts of this case, it provides:
“Unfair or deceptive trade practices include any:
“(1) False, falsely disparaging, or misleading oral or written statement, visual description, or other representation of any kind which has the capacity, tendency, or effect of deceiving or misleading consumers;
“(2) Representation that:
“(i) Consumer goods, consumer realty, or consumer services have a sponsorship, approval, accessory, char[523]*523acteristic, ingredient, use, benefit, or quantity which they do not have;
“(iv) Consumer goods, consumer realty, or consumer services are of a particular standard, quality, grade, style, or model which they are not;
“(3) Failure to state a material fact if the failure deceives or tends to deceive;
“(9) Deception, fraud, false pretense, false premise, misrepresentation, or knowing concealment, suppression, or omission of any material fact with the intent that a consumer rely on the same in connection with:
“(i) The promotion or sale of any consumer goods, consumer realty, or consumer service; or
“(ii) A contract or other agreement for the evaluation, perfection, marketing, brokering or promotion of an invention; or
“(iii) The subsequent performance of a merchant with respect to an agreement of sale, lease, or rental.... ”
C.
One of the issues presented in Golt was “whether the leasing of an unlicensed dwelling unit constitutes an unfair or deceptive act under Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA).” 308 Md. at 1, 517 A.2d at 329. There, an elderly, disabled retiree responded to an advertisement for the rental of a furnished apartment. Upon inspecting of the apartment and finding it in need of cleaning and repairing, and receiving assurances that the necessary work would be done, he signed a month-to-month lease, paid a month’s rent and a security deposit and moved into the apartment. Having learned after moving in that the toilet facilities were located outside of his apartment and that he would have to share them with another [524]*524tenant and after getting no response to repeated requests for repairs, he called the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development, which inspected the premises, discovering, among other code violations, that the landlord did not have the necessary license or inspection to operate the building as a multiple dwelling. Id. at 5-6, 517 A.2d at 330. To resolve that issue, this Court interpreted § 13-301(1), (2) and (3), in light, however, of the applicable provision of the Baltimore City Code, concluding ( id. at 9, 517 A.2d at 332), “[i]n our view, advertising and renting an unlicensed dwelling violates § 13-301(1), (2), and (3) [of the CPA]”:
“Implicit in any advertisement and rental of an apartment is the representation that the leasing of the apartment is lawful. Baltimore City Code, Art. 13, § 1101 (1983 Repl. Vol.), expressly prohibits the operation of any multiple family dwelling without a license or temporary certificate. As Phillips Brothers had neither a license nor a temporary certificate, it violated the City Code. Phillips Brothers could not provide Golt with the unimpeded right to possession during the lease term. Consequently, Phillips Brothers advertisement and rental of the apartment was a ‘misleading ... statement ... or other representation of any kind which has the capacity, tendency, or effect of deceiving or misleading consumers.’ Maryland Code (1983 Repl.Vol.), § 13-301(1) of the Commercial Law Article.
“Furthermore, such a representation is in essence a representation that the ‘realty ... [has] a sponsorship, approval ... [or] characteristic ... which [it does] not have,’ id. § 13-301(2)—namely, licensing for operation as a multiple family dwelling. It makes no difference that Appellees did not expressly state that the premises were properly licensed; such a basic prerequisite to any lease agreement is implied. For consumer protection purposes, the meaning of any statement or representation is determined not only by what is explicitly stated, but also by what is reasonably implied. Spiegel, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, 411 F.2d 481, 483 (7th Cir.1969); Aronberg v. Federal Trade Commission, 132 F.2d 165, 167 (7th Cir.1942): In the [525]*525Matter of Seekonk Freezer Meats, Inc., 82 F.T C. 1025, 1054 (1973).
“Finally, Phillips Brothers also violated § 13-301(3) of the CPA, which states that the failure to disclose a material fact, which deceives or tends to deceive, is an unfair or deceptive trade practice. The lack of proper licensing is a material fact that Phillips Brothers failed to state. In addition, failure to disclose this fact deceived Golt or at least had the tendency to deceive consumers. An omission is considered material if a significant number of unsophisticated consumers would attach importance to the information in determining a choice of action. See, e.g., Charles of the Ritz Distributors Corp. v. Federal Trade Commission, 143 F.2d 676, 679-80 (2d Cir.1944); Gulf Oil Corp. v. Federal Trade Commission, 150 F.2d 106, 109 (5th Cir.1945); cf. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 538 (1977) (Under common law fraud, a fact is deemed material if a reasonable person would attach importance to its existence in determining his choice of action.). In our view, the lack of proper licensing for an apartment under most circumstances is a material fact that any tenant would find important in his determination of whether to sign a lease agreement and move into the premises. (Footnote omitted).
Id. at 9-10, 517 A.2d at 332.
In Richwind, this Court again interpreted the CPA and considered, albeit in a somewhat different context, the very provisions of the Baltimore City Code at issue in this case. At issue in Richwind were the extent to which provisions of Baltimore City ordinances and Public Local Laws supersede the common law rule that, before being held liable for negligence, a landlord must have notice of a particular defect and a reasonable opportunity to correct it and whether the CPA imposes strict breach of warranty liability for personal injury upon a landlord without requiring proof of knowledge, deception, reliance, or causation. 335 Md. at 666, 645 A.2d at 1149. There, at the invitation of the owner’s management company, the tenant, who resided in the premises prior to their acquisition by the landlord, forwarded a series of complaints about [526]*526the disrepair of her apartment, including “[chipping and flaking] paint and plaster from the walls.” Id. at 668, 645 A.2d at 1150. The president of the management company dispatched workers to correct the problems, but did not inspect the work to determine whether the repairs had been made adequately. Id. After her two children were diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels, the Baltimore City Health Department inspected the property and served the owner and the management company with notice of violations and required removal of the lead hazards. Id. at 668-69, 645 A.2d at 1150. Evidence developed at trial indicated that, although he had no specific knowledge about the presence of lead-based paint in the defendant’s building, the president of the management company knew that buildings like it often contained lead-based paint. The trial court granted the defendants’ motion for judgment on the CPA count and submitted the negligence count to the jury, which returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the jury verdict, but reversed as to the CPA. We did likewise—affirmed the judgment of the intermediate appellate court as to negligence, but reversed as to the CPA.
As to the negligence verdict, we accepted the defendants’ concession that certain provisions of the Baltimore City Code (1983 RepLVol.), i.e., Art. 13, §§ 702, 703 and 706, impact the common law requisites of liability and may impose a duty on a landlord to protect a tenant from injury, 335 Md. at 670-71, 645 A.2d at 1151, and, thus, agreed that their violation by a defendant could provide the basis for a negligence action. Id. at 671-72, 645 A.2d at 1152 (citing Restatement (Second) of Property, Landlord and Tenant § 17.6 (1977)).11 Concluding [527]*527that “the relevant issues in the instant case are ... whether the city code’s notice provisions expand common law liability, and whether Richwind or its agent had adequate notice and/or knowledge of this hazardous lead paint condition,” id. (citing Baltimore City Code (1983 Repl.Vol.), Art. 13, §§ 301, 302 and 303), we held that there was sufficient evidence both of notice to the landlord and of the landlord’s breach of the duty to correct the dangerous condition. The Baltimore City Code provisions we referenced were Art. 13, §§ 30112 and 303,13 however, rather than §§ 702 and 703, both of which established an implied warranty of habitability. 335 Md. at 673, 645 A.2d at 1152. Concerning the City Code’s effect on a landlord’s common law liability, we held that they did not super-cede the common law’s notice requirement. Id. at 674-75, 645 A.2d at 1153. As to that, we explained:
“the common law and the city code appear consistent with each other as they apply to the prerequisite of knowledge and/or notice. Both require that a landlord have notice of the dangerous condition on the property and a reasonable opportunity to correct it. Neither impose upon Richwind a duty to periodically inspect the premises during the leased period for dangerous conditions to determine if repairs are necessary. To hold otherwise would circumvent years of unbroken precedent concerning such a duty, and might force landlords to become the “insurers” of their tenants, a policy which has been repeatedly rejected by the courts of this State. See Scott, 278 Md. at 165, 359 A.2d at 552 (reiterating that “mere ownership of buildings does not render the owner liable for injuries sustained by tenants [528]*528since the landlord is not an insurer of such persons”); Ramsey, 265 Md. at 321, 289 A.2d at 323 (asserting that “the owner is not an insurer of the safety” of those rightfully on the premises”); Elmar Gardens, Inc., 227 Md. at 457, 177 A.2d at 265 (stating that “mere ownership of land or buildings does not render the owner liable for injuries sustained by tenants or invitees rightfully on the premises, for the owner is not an insurer of such persons but owes them the duty only to exercise ordinary care”).” (Footnote omitted).
Id.
Turning to the CPA, the Court made clear that its non-applicability was due to the fact that the defective condition arose during the term of the lease, rather than at its inception. After reviewing the history of the CPA’s applicability to landlord-tenant matters, and noting that the only times that this Court has applied the CPA in landlord/tenant cases have been where the unfair or deceptive practice occurred during the establishment of the landlord/tenant relationship between the parties, see Golt, 308 Md. at 11, 517 A.2d at 333; Citara-Manis, 328 Md. at 149 n. 3, 613 A.2d at 967 n. 3; Galola v. Snyder, 328 Md. 182, 185, 613 A.2d 983, 985 (1992), the Court held:
“The CPA applies to a lease at the time the consumer enters into it, and the Act is intended to govern deceptive trade practices which induce the prospective tenant to enter into such a lease.”
Id. at 683, 645 A.2d at 1158. Continuing with that theme, having acknowledged that comprehensive landlord and tenant statutes, as well as the common law, regulates a landlord’s acts or omissions during the term of the lease, we stated our doubt that “the legislature intended the CPA to be applicable to statements or omissions concerning the leased premises occurring during the term of the lease.” 335 Md. 661, 683, 645 A.2d 1147, 1158. Finally, concerned that the Court of Special Appeals’s interpretation of the CPA would hold a landlord liable for the nondisclosure of a condition arising during the [529]*529term of the lease, of which the landlord has no knowledge, and would impose strict liability on landlords throughout the term of the lease, the Court opined, on the subject, as follows:
“It is reasonable to assume that the General Assembly intended to limit application of the CPA to material misstatements and omissions at the inception of the lease rather than during the full term of the lease. At the time the lease is entered into, a landlord has superior knowledge as to the condition of the premises. During the term of the lease, however, when the tenant is in exclusive possession and control of the premises, it is the tenant who has superior knowledge of the property’s condition. If we were to hold otherwise, a landlord conceivably could be found liable under the CPA for a dangerous condition created by a tenant during the term of the lease without any notice from the tenant to the landlord or any opportunity for the landlord to correct it. Such a decision could impose a standard amounting to strict liability for any defect arising on the premises during the term of the lease. We do not believe the legislature intended to extend the scope of the CPA to impose such a standard on landlords.
“Although the premises leased in the instant case obviously contained lead-based paint, that alone would not have rendered them uninhabitable or in violation of the CPA. Renting a premises with intact, lead-based paint is not in itself a violation of the CPA. The plaintiffs CPA claims were based on the landlords’ failure to disclose that there was peeling, chipping, or flaking lead-based paint which constituted an unsafe condition. There was no evidence that at the time the lease was entered into there was any peeling or chipping paint. As we have indicated, mere silence about a condition that arises during the term of this lease, rather than prior to or at the time the lease is entered into, is not a violation of the CPA. Cf. Miles v. Shauntee, 664 S.W.2d 512, 518-19 (Ky.1983) (holding that failure of a landlord to make repairs required by the housing code is not a violation of the consumer protection act).
[530]*530“In the instant case, the tenants had exclusive possession and control of the premises for two years prior to Richwind taking title. If there was any false or deceptive trade practice involved in leasing these premises, it would have been engaged in by Richwind’s predecessor in title, the Baitches, who settled the claims made against them. Consequently, Richwind’s post-lease silence does not give rise to a CPA cause of action.”
Id. at 685-86, 645 A.2d at 1159 (footnote omitted).14
V.
To be sure, the condition about which the respondent complained was the existence of flaking and chipping paint. The petitioner’s negligence in the maintenance of the respondent’s apartment or in failing to correct the condition after the lease began is not at issue in this case. That aspect of the case was resolved by a jury verdict in favor of the petitioner. As we have seen, the respondent also alleged, supported by proof, that the apartment contained chipping and flaking paint when the lease was entered into. It is the correctness of the jury instruction given in connection with this aspect of the case and the proper application of the CPA that are at issue.
As we have seen, a landlord leasing or agreeing to rent a dwelling intended for human habitation is deemed to covenant and warrant that it is fit for human habitation. § 9-14.1, Baltimore City Code of Public Local Laws. Thus, the provi[531]*531sions of the City Code, i.e., §§ 702, 703, and 706, setting minimum standards and thereby giving meaning to the implied warranty, rather than §§ 301 and 303, the notice provisions, are the ones that are relevant. To prove a violation of the CPA premised on the breach of the implied warranty of habitability, it must be shown that, at the inception of the lease, the landlord made material misstatements or omissions, which either had the tendency to or, in fact, did, mislead the tenant. Thus, the landlord must have knowledge, constructive or actual, of the condition of the premises at the time of the lease.
The implied warranty provisions establish a threshold for the lease of premises and that threshold is based on the purpose of the Baltimore City Housing Code, to “make dwellings safe, sanitary and fit for human habitation,” for the benefit of “the health and safety of the people.” These provisions, like the Code of which it is a part, are applications of the police power of the City of Baltimore. See McBriety v. City of Baltimore, 219 Md. 223, 231, 148 A.2d 408, 414 (1959); Heubeck v. City of Baltimore, 205 Md. 203, 208, 107 A.2d 99, 102, (1954); Maryland Mortg. & Inv. Co. v. State, 25 Md.App. 8, 11, 332 A.2d 675, 678-79 (1975); Section 6(24) of the Baltimore City Charter. They are examples of public health and safety regulations. See Golt, 308 Md. at 13, 517 A.2d at 334. The City has a vital interest and public purpose in ensuring the habitability of its housing stock and in the health and safety of its people. See Maryland Mortg. & Inv. Co., 25 Md.App. at 12, 332 A.2d at 678.
Ordinarily in the case of police regulations, violation gives rise to penalty, irrespective of the motive or knowledge of the violating party, “for the law, in those cases, seems to bind the party to know the facts, and to obey the law at his peril.” Carroll v. State, 63 Md. 551, 551, 3 A. 29, 30 (1885). That is not the case here, however. The City Code provides, as we have seen, for notice and prescribes a time in which any violation may be corrected. Nevertheless, ignorance of the law is no defense. Golt, 308 Md. at 10, 517 A.2d at 332; [532]*532Samson v. State, 27 Md.App. 326, 334, 341 A.2d 817, 823 (1975); it will not relieve one who commits a wrongful act from the legal consequences of that act. Flohr v. Coleman, 245 Md. 254, 267, 225 A.2d 868, 875 (1967). Indeed, everyone is “presumed to know the law regardless of conscious knowledge or lack thereof, and are presumed to intend the necessary and legitimate consequences of their actions in its light.” Samson, 27 Md.App. at 334, 341 A.2d at 823 ( citing Grumbine v. State, 60 Md. 355, 356).
Just as a motorist is presumed to know the law regulating the use of motor vehicles, Flohr, 245 Md. at 267, 225 A.2d at 875, so too is a landlord presumed to know the requirements of the City Code pertaining to the habitability of leased premises. In either case, it is the actions and omissions that have the legal effect the law prescribes, and thus must be evaluated, not the actor’s knowledge or ignorance. Id.; Glenn L. Martin Co. to Use of American Mut. Liability Ins. Co. v. Fidelity-Baltimore Nat. Bank & Trust Co., 218 Md. 28, 37, 145 A.2d 267, 272 (1958).
Here, sections 702, 703 and 706 of the City Code prescribe the standard for the lease of premises for human habitability and § 9-14.1 deems every lease of premises for that purpose to contain a warrant of their fitness for that purpose. In his pre-lease communications with the respondent’s mother, the petitioner did not disclose that there was chipping and flaking paint, as the respondent’s evidence showed, and may have, impliedly or expressly, represented the opposite. The petitioner’s statement or omission must be viewed in light of the City Code and Public Local Law requirements, whether or not the petitioner was aware of them. He argues, however, that he neither had actual knowledge of the chipping or flaking paint or reason to know of the condition. The petitioner supports that argument by pointing to our holding in Rich-wind that a landlord is under no duty to inspect premises for defective conditions.
As the owner of the premises and the landlord, on whom the law imposes specific duties and obligations in con[533]*533nection with the lease of the premises, including implying a representation as to the premises’ condition at the time of the lease, the law imputes the requisite knowledge to the petitioner. See James Clark Co. v. Colton, 91 Md. 195, 204-205, 46 A. 386, 388 (1900) (holding that, despite their denials, the officers of a bank, conceded to have been insolvent for years, must have known, or ought to have known, of its insolvency when payments determined to be unlawful and fraudulent preferences were made.) Assuming that the Richwind holding applies even to the inception of the lease,15 the law presumes the existence of a condition that a reasonable inspection, had it been conducted would have uncovered. In other words, the [534]*534landlord need not inspect the premises before leasing, but because of the implied representation that accompanies the making of the lease, he or she fails to do so at his or her peril. This recognizes, as we noted in Richwind, 335 Md. at 685, 645 A.2d at 1159, that “[a]t the time the lease is entered into, a landlord has superior knowledge as to the condition of the premises.” Moreover, to hold otherwise would be to encourage landlords not to take seriously the obligations imposed upon them by the City Code; they would be placed in a better position due to their willful ignorance than they would have been in if they had performed their duties. Id.
It is not disputed that the petitioner never informed the respondent of the presence of chipping and flaking paint on the premises at the time the premises were let, maintaining to the contrary, that no such condition existed at that time. Nevertheless, although disputed—there being testimony that the apartment was freshly painted, passed a Section 8 inspection and the respondent inspected the premises before renting it—there was evidence from which the jury could have found that there was chipping and flaking paint in the apartment at the inception of the lease. Which of the various factual scenarios to accept was for the jury to determine.
The presence of chipping and flaking paint in the apartment at the inception of the lease, like the lack of a license in Golt, both being questions of fact, in addition to being a Housing Code violation, could be the predicate for the jury to find a violation of the CPA: implicit in the rental of an apartment is the representation that the rental is lawful, Golt, 308 Md. at 9, 517 A.2d at 332, and that the apartment is in good repair, in safe condition and fit for human habitation, § 9-14.1; an apartment with flaking, loose and peeling paint has not been maintained “in good repair and safe condition” and, therefore, is in violation of the Housing Code; § 1001 makes it illegal to rent a dwelling unit containing Housing Code violations. Had the jury credited the testimony of the respondent’s sister, it could then have found that the rental of the apartment in this case violated § 13-301(9) of the CPA, as well as the same provisions as the rental of the apartment in Golt.
[535]*535The rental of the apartment without disclosing the flaking, loose or peeling paint would violate § 13-301(1) in that it would be a “misleading ... statement ... or other representation,” having the capacity, tendency, or effect of deceiving or misleading the respondent. The implicit representation that the apartment “... [has] a sponsorship, approval ... [or] characteristic ... which [it does] not have,” namely, it was in good repair and safe condition and, thus fit for human habitation, would violate § 13-301(2), because whether an apartment is in good repair and safe condition, which, as the Housing Code defines the terms, include being free of flaking, loose and peeling paint, is, to one looking for an apartment, a material fact. Moreover, the failure to disclose it could be found by a jury to deceive or to have the tendency to deceive. Accordingly, the jury could have found that the petitioner’s failure to inform the respondent of the condition of the premises violated § 13-301(3).
The petitioner argues that the applicable section of the CPA is § 13-301(9), which, by its terms, requires the proof of “knowing concealment, suppression, or omission of any material fact” and of scienter—“the intent that a consumer rely on the same.” For this subsection to be applicable, the omission must have been in connection with at least one of three circumstances, only one of which, “(i) [t]he promotion or sale of any consumer goods, consumer realty, or consumer service,” is offered by the petitioner in support of his argument.16 [536]*536As we have indicated, in Baltimore City, the rental of an apartment with flaking, loose and peeling paint is like renting an apartment in an apartment building without a license for the operation of that building; both are violations of the Housing Code. To be sure, a reasonable inspection of the apartment may have revealed the existence of the flaking, loose and peeling paint, but not the lack of a license. That distinction is not critical to the resolution of this case, however. The instructions in this case are erroneous in two respects: they hinge liability on the landlord’s knowledge that the chipping and flaking paint was lead-based and they do not take account of any presumption of knowledge. We have determined that the landlord who leases premises for human habitation is presumed to have knowledge of any defective condition that a reasonable inspection would have disclosed and, as previously indicated, the factual dispute that the former situation presents is a matter for the jury to determine after proper instructions.
VI.
Finally, the petitioner maintains that the jury necessarily found, by its verdict, that the apartment did not have flaking, loose and peeling paint at the inception of the lease, any error that the trial court may have committed instructing the jury was harmless. He reasons:
“the jury decided the negligence count in favor of Benik by weighing the evidence and finding that, at the beginning of the lease there was no flaking paint. There was substantial evidence, as shown by the testimony of housing inspector William Lohr, that there was no flaking paint.... Mr. Benik and his assistant also testified that the paint was fresh and intact, when they were in the unit prior to commencement of the lease .... moreover, Ms. Hatcher did not note any flaking paint on her pre-lease inspection .... the Hatchers relied entirely on the testimony of twelve year [537]*537old Chekeda Hatcher, sister of Brandon Hatcher, that she recalled flaking paint throughout the apartment at the beginning of the lease.... In order to decide the negligence issue, the jury had to weigh this evidence, and must have decided that there was no flaking paint at the inception of the lease. Otherwise, the jury would have found for the plaintiff.”
It is well settled that a civil judgment will not be reversed unless the complaining party shows both error and prejudice. See, e.g., Fish Market Nominee Corp. v. G.A.A., Inc., 337 Md. 1, 15, 650 A.2d 705, 711-12 (1994); Harris v. Harris, 310 Md. 310, 319, 529 A.2d 356 (1987). See State of Md. Deposit Ins. Fund Corp. v. Billman, 321 Md. 3, 16-18, 580 A.2d 1044, 1051-52 (1990). There is prejudice when the error influenced the outcome of the case. Beahm v. Shortall, 279 Md. 321, 330-31, 368 A.2d 1005, 1018 (1977); State Roads Comm. v. Kuenne, 240 Md. 232, 235, 213 A.2d 567, 568 (1965).
We agree with the respondent. The jury was instructed that, to find a violation of the CPA, there must have been, at the beginning of the lease, “chipping and flaking lead-based paint” and that the petitioner “was aware of the chipping and flaking lead-based paint.” As we have seen, what the Housing Code proscribes is “flaking, loose and peeling paint,” not flaking, loose and peeling lead-based paint. Moreover, the jury was not asked specifically whether there was flaking, loose or peeling paint, lead-based or otherwise, and the special verdict sheet does not reflect any such finding. It is thus quite conceivable that the jury determined that there was flaking and chipped paint in the apartment at the inception of the lease, but that the petitioner was not aware that it was lead-based. As the respondent notes, the petitioner testified that he believed that if there was lead-based paint in the premises, it was covered up, encapsulated by new walls and sheet rock installed during renovation. From this, we can plausibly surmise, as the respondent contends, that “[t]he jury simply found that the Defendant was not negligent (under the ‘reason to know’ standard of Richwind) and did not violate [538]*538the CPA (under the flawed instructions given by the court below).”
JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS AFFIRMED, WITH COSTS.
RODOWSKY, RAKER and CATHELL, JJ., dissent.