Many of the landlords understand they may be responsible for some specific sort of injuries or serious damages caused by lack of safety measures on the property they own. Even if they are not responsible or liable for all the negative things happening in their property there are some liabilities a landlord cannot escape from. Following is a list of four liabilities that a landlord surprisingly remains responsible for:
1. Presence of Dogs:
A Landlord commonly is not responsible in case the dog of his or her tenant bites someone unless of course she or he understood the
dog is harmful (i.e.: she or he knows the tenant’s dog has bitten someone before) and also the landlord might have had taken serious action to have the dog removed from his or her property.
Suggestions: One of the easiest actions is always to notify the tenants not to have any dogs with them in the property area. In case you love dogs or do not want to put pressure on the tenant’s not to have any dogs with them do the following things:
- Only allow dog or dogs that you’ve already met and found to be safe for all.
- Require dog to remain leashed.
- Make rules for dogs and in case any rules or terms are ignored and not respected take steps to remove the dog from your property
- Have a written agreement from your tenant that they will be responsible if any accident or unwanted situation occurs because of the dog they have with them.
2. Criminal Activity:
It is the responsibility of the Landlords to do almost anything for the safety of his or her tenants. There are lots of criminal activities going on around and, therefore, it is important to take protection against possible criminal activities.
Suggestions: Remain always careful about possible criminal activities. Make it sure that the property is danger free. Adhere to laws and regulations made to safeguard tenants.
- Regularly inspect home security systems.
- Do something immediately if you’re informed of the harmful situation.
- Take steps to repair the security light in case it is damaged. If there’s suspicious activity, inform police and never hesitate to warn all the tenants
- Consider employing security guards or setting up surveillance equipment.
- Identify suspicious tenants who may commit crime and have them removed from your property.
3. Safety of home windows and Screens
Each year innumberable number of kids get hurt or even killed falling out of home windows. There are lots of windows that have screens with no sufficient barrier. And that is what causes tragedy.
Suggestions: As the final results vary by condition and also the details of every situation, you will learn something new everytime when such incidents occur.
- Make the tenants aware of the fact that that children ought to be kept away from open home window.
- Make immediate steps if there are any broken screens to repair.
4. Secondhand Smoke
Landlords have the responsibility to provide tenants with a property with safe environment. Hence, a landlord has to take steps against secondhand smoke in his or her property. In case any step is not taken against secondhand smoke a tenant may sue the landlord.
Suggestions: The easiest action is always to do everything to have the entire property free from smoke.
- Make it sure that smoke does not visit units where the tenants reside in.
- In case it is a must to allow smoke in a unit, make it sure that it does not have any impact on other units.
To conclude, as a landlord a person cannot ignore the liabilities he has. Therefore, he or she has to be aware of his liabilities and take proper actions in order to avoid any sort of unwanted situations.