Surprising Landlord Responsibilities

Almost every landlord is wary that they can be responsible for damages and injuries resulting from dangerous situations on their property. Common examples are tenant falling down a broken step after a landlord failed to resolve the issue or tenant slipping on a patch of ice.

However, there are other possible responsibilities that are not that common. If you have a home for rent Garden Grove, here are a couple of responsibilities you might not know.

Bedbugs

Landlords might be automatically responsible for getting rid of bedbugs and for any damages. This depends on the state. You can be sued for breach of the warranty of habitability if you fail to immediately deal with a bedbug infestation.

You should always be active if you’re living in a place where bedbugs are common.

Secondhand Smoke

Landlords might have a responsibility to avoid guests and tenants from being harmed by secondhand smoke in their units and in common areas. If you neglect this responsibility, any tenant with breathing problems can apply the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act to sue you for not making responsible accommodations for these types of individuals.

Screens and Windows

For those who don’t know, thousands of kids are injured or killed falling out of windows each year. A lot of these windows have screens. Obviously, these screens don’t always offer enough barriers to stop the kid. Property managers and landlords have been held responsible in a couple of these cases.

Criminal Activity

You have a couple of liability to secure your tenants from criminal activity on your property. There are a lot of tenants out there who have sued their landlords for failing to take responsible approaches to protect them from crime. This is particularly true when the landlords were wary that the same crime already happened in that area.

Aside from that, landlords have a liability to protect the neighboring properties from the criminal activities of their renters. You can be sued for public nuisance if you neglect this. Aside from that, government authorities and law enforcement authorities can seek criminal penalties or impose fines against you who if you enable drug dealing on your property.

Dogs

In general, you are not responsible if the dog of your tenant bites another person. However, you will be responsible if you already know that the dog has already bitten someone before and you did not do anything to prevent it from happening again.

Prohibiting dogs in your rental property is the easiest approach you can take. However, there are a couple of things you can think about if you want to be dog-friendly. Here are some of them:

• You should require renter’s insurance that includes liability coverage.
• You need to get rid of the dog or terminate the tenant if the dog becomes a hazard or the terms are violated.
• Enable for changes to the pet clause at any time. You have to include a 1-month notice.
• When not in the rental unit, you need to require the dog to be leashed.
• Only accept particular dogs.