Clearly understanding the potential legal consequences of a tenant’s negligence is a significant challenge for landlords. When your tenant signed the lease, they practically agreed to maintain your Searcy rental home in a clean and proper condition and refrain from illegal activities. However, in actual fact, not all tenants adhere to these terms, and problems that start off on the property can instantly escalate into legal problems for you.
Even though you are not held responsible for the illegal activities of your tenant, if you actually know that your rental home is being used for unauthorized business activities, your neighbors could potentially hold you totally responsible. The outcome of any legal action taken against you will chiefly rest on your awareness of the issue and the steps you took to manage it. Being proactive in such situations is essential to protecting your interests.
How and When You Knew
Every now and again, renters are excellent at hiding shady activities from their landlords. Nonetheless, if you do reckon something’s happening on your rental property, it is pivotal to address the issues immediately. In most regions, you could be held liable in court if your tenant engages in dangerous or illegal activities that you were absolutely aware of.
As an illustration, 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 probably hold you liable for any damages.
The Slippery Slope of “Should”
In some circumstances, whether you “should” have known about a renter’s illicit activities may arise. For instance, if you have information your renter is self-employed before you offer them a lease, there is some confusion in regard to whether or not that supposes that you should have assumed they would be conducting that business in the rental home.
Aside from that, if your renter had been evicted for boisterous parties in the past, you may be held accountable since you should have checked with their previous landlord about it. Unmistakably, if you’ve accomplished due diligence and didn’t find any evidence of past problems, that will strengthen your chances of avoiding liability.
Addressing the Problem
Addressing any problems a renter creates the soonest you know about them is always a good idea. Conversely, sometimes, a property owner has a limited ability to surely fix the issue altogether. If a tenant is creating a nuisance for the neighbors but hasn’t downright broken the lease terms, you can’t be held responsible for failing to evict them.
In order for you to be liable, you must have the power to certainly do something with regard to the issue. But of course, the flip side is that if your lease clarifies that you don’t allow wild parties or business activities and you don’t take action, you might really 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. Besides that, taking immediate and appropriate action is, in addition, important to keep yourself from being sued by unhappy neighbors.
Completely screening your renters is another critical part of keeping yourself out of unwelcome legal trouble, as is executing regular property evaluations. At Real Property Management Delta, we do all this for our Searcy property owners – and more. Would you like to discover more? Just make sure to get in touch with us online or by phone at 501-404-0674 for more useful 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.
