Correctly understanding the potential legal consequences of a tenant’s negligence is quite a significant challenge for landlords. When your tenant signed the lease, they agreed to properly maintain your San Fernando Valley rental home in a clean and proper condition and refrain from illegal activities. But, as a matter of fact, not all tenants adhere to these terms, and issues that start out on the property can straight away escalate into legal problems for you.
Even though you are not held responsible for the illegal activities of your tenant, if you checked out that your rental home is being used for unauthorized business activities, your neighbors could potentially hold you completely accountable. The outcome of any legal action taken against you will surely rely on your awareness of the issue and the steps you took to deal with it. Being proactive in such situations is essential to protecting your interests.
How and When You Knew
Every so often, renters are so good at hiding shady activities from their landlords. With that said, if you do know that something is happening on your rental property, it is very 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 were, in fact, aware of.
For instance, 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 predictably hold you liable for any damages.
The Slippery Slope of “Should”
Every so often, whether you “should” have known about a renter’s illicit activities may occur. Case in point, if you already know your renter is self-employed before you offer them a lease, there is some confusion related to whether or not that connotes that you should have assumed they would be conducting that business in the rental home.
Not only that, if your renter had been evicted for noisy parties in the past, you may be held accountable since you should have checked with their previous landlord about it. Absolutely, if you’ve done your due diligence and didn’t determine any evidence of past problems, that will deepen your chances of avoiding liability.
Addressing the Problem
Addressing any problems a renter creates immediately after you’ve heard about them is always a good idea. At any rate, sometimes, a property owner has a limited ability to seriously fix the issue altogether. If a tenant is creating a nuisance for the neighbors but hasn’t straightforwardly 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 unequivocally do something referring to the issue. Clearly, the flip side is that if your lease clarifies that you don’t allow chaotic 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 pivotal first step toward holding your tenants accountable for any nuisance or illicit activities. Aside from that, taking immediate and appropriate action is likewise critical to keeping yourself from being sued by disappointed neighbors.
Heedfully and thoroughly screening your renters is another integral part of keeping yourself out of unwelcome legal trouble, as is establishing regular property evaluations. At Real Property Management West San Fernando Valley, we do all this for our San Fernando Valley property owners – and more. Would you like to discover more? Feel free to get in touch with us online or by phone at 818-727-0100 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.
