Properly understanding the potential legal consequences of a tenant’s negligence is a real significant challenge for landlords. When your tenant signed the lease, they essentially agreed to maintain your Columbia rental home in a clean and proper condition and refrain from illegal activities. However, in practice, not all tenants adhere to these terms, and conflicts that get their start on the property can easily escalate into legal problems for you.
Granting that you are not held responsible for the illegal activities of your tenant, but if you actually know that your rental home is being used for unauthorized business activities, your neighbors could potentially hold you totally liable. The outcome of any legal action taken against you will, for the most part, be based upon your awareness of the issue and the steps you took to rightly address it. Being proactive in such situations is absolutely critical to protecting your interests.
How and When You Knew
From time to time, renters are quite excellent at hiding shady activities from their landlords. Anyhow, if you do know what is happening on your rental property, it is principally important to address the issues immediately. In many regions, you could be held liable in court if your tenant engages in dangerous or illegal activities that you really were aware of.
For a case in point, if you knew one of your tenants was using your rental home as a daycare and one of your renters or their clients hurt someone, themselves, or damaged personal property, the court could more likely hold you liable for any damages.
The Slippery Slope of “Should”
In a few situaltions, whether you “should” have known about a renter’s illicit activities may arise. Case in point, if you really know your renter is self-employed before you offer them a lease, there is some confusion toward whether or not that likewise indicates that you should have assumed they would be conducting that business in the rental home.
Another thing, if your renter had been evicted for high-spirited, loud parties in the past, you may be held accountable since you should have checked with their previous landlord about it. But remember, if you’ve dealt with your due diligence and weren’t informed of any evidence of past problems, that will certainly increase your chances of avoiding liability.
Addressing the Problem
Addressing any problems a renter creates instantly when you know about them is always a good idea. Except, sometimes, a property owner has a limited ability to completely fix the issue altogether. If a tenant is creating a nuisance for the neighbors but hasn’t unquestionably broken the lease terms, you can’t be held responsible for failing to evict them.
To be certainly liable, you must have the power to straightforwardly do something with respect to the issue. Naturally, the flip side is that if your lease clarifies that you don’t allow tacky, wild parties or business activities and you don’t take action, you, consequently, might be on the hook in a lawsuit
The specific terms and language used in the lease are a salient first step toward holding your tenants accountable for any nuisance or illicit activities. Alongside that, taking immediate and appropriate action is likewise primarily important to keeping yourself from being sued by disconcerted neighbors.
Surely and thoroughly screening your renters is another really important part of keeping yourself out of unwelcome legal trouble, as is fulfilling regular property evaluations. At Real Property Management Prime, we do all this for our Columbia property owners – and more. Would you like to figure out more? Make sure to get in touch with us online or by phone at 410-415-1736 for more pertinent information.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.