Carefully understanding the potential legal consequences of a tenant’s negligence is a considerable challenge for landlords. When your tenant signed the lease, they agreed to keep your Lewisville rental home in a clean and proper condition and refrain from illegal activities. But, in fact, not all tenants adhere to these terms, and complications that start off on the property can swiftly escalate into legal problems for you.
Even though you are not held responsible for the illegal activities of your tenant, if you learn that your rental home is being used for unauthorized business activities, your neighbors could potentially hold you totally accountable. The outcome of any legal action taken against you will seemingly rest on your awareness of the issue and the steps you took to address it. Being proactive in such situations is essential to protecting your interests.
How and When You Knew
Every once in a while renters are pretty good at hiding shady activities from their landlords. Then again, if you do figure out something’s happening on your rental property, it is critical 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 know of.
By way of 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 highly possibly 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 come about. By way of illustration, if you are aware that your renter is self-employed before you offer them a lease, there is some confusion pertaining to whether or not that involves that you should have known they would be conducting that business in the rental home.
Besides, if your renter had been evicted for rowdy parties in the past, you may be held accountable since you should have checked with their previous landlord about it. It needs to be said that if you’ve fulfilled due diligence and didn’t discover any evidence of past problems, that will magnify your chances of avoiding liability.
Addressing the Problem
Addressing any problems a renter creates the soonest you ascertain about them is always a good idea. Still, sometimes, a property owner has a limited ability to thoroughly fix the issue altogether. If a tenant is creating a nuisance for the neighbors but hasn’t completely broken the lease terms, you can’t be held responsible for failing to evict them.
For you to be liable, you must have the power to literally do something over the issue. It goes without saying, the flip side is that if your lease clarifies that you don’t allow exuberant parties or business activities and you don’t take action, you will likely be on the hook in a lawsuit
The specific terms and language used in the lease are a criticall first step toward holding your tenants accountable for any nuisance or illicit activities. On top of that, taking immediate and appropriate action is furthermore very important to keep yourself from being sued by annoyed neighbors.
Diligently and thoroughly screening your renters is another salient part of keeping yourself out of unwelcome legal trouble, as is executing regular property evaluations. At Real Property Management Pioneer, we do all this for our Lewisville property owners – and more. Would you like to find out more more? Make sure to get in touch with us online or by phone at 940-435-2526 for more valuable information.
Originally Published on February 8, 2019
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.