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Can a Milford Landlord be Sued for a Renter’s Negligence?

A property manager sits at a table with a couple, discussing lease terms in a casual setting.Correctly understanding the potential legal consequences of a tenant’s negligence is a significant challenge for landlords. When your tenant signed the lease, they agreed to properly maintain your Milford rental home in a clean and proper condition and refrain from illegal activities. But, in fact, not all tenants adhere to these terms, and problems that are set in motion on the property can instantaneously escalate into legal problems for you.

Though, in fact, you are not held responsible for the illegal activities of your tenant, if you recognize that your rental home is being used for unauthorized business activities, your neighbors could potentially hold you liable. The outcome of any legal action taken against you will disputably be subject to your awareness of the issue and the steps you took to appropriately handle it. Being proactive in such situations is certainly critical to protecting your interests.

How and When You Knew

From time to time, renters are really good at hiding shady activities from their landlords. On the contrary, if you do know what’s happening on your rental property, it is pertinent to address the issues immediately. In majority of regions, you could be held liable in court if your tenant engages in dangerous or illegal activities that you were clearly 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 plausibly hold you liable for any damages.

The Slippery Slope of “Should”

In a few cases, whether you “should” have known about a renter’s illicit activities may crop up. Like, example, if you figure out your renter is self-employed before you offer them a lease, there is some confusion concerning whether or not that presupposes that you should have assumed they would be conducting that business in the rental home.

Another thing, if your renter had been evicted for powerful parties in the past, you may be held accountable since you should have checked with their previous landlord about it. Undoubtedly, if you’ve actually done due diligence and didn’t find out any evidence of past problems, that will actually increase your chances of avoiding liability.

Addressing the Problem

Addressing any problems a renter creates the soonest chance you figure out about them is always a good idea. With that said, sometimes, a property owner has a limited ability to totally fix the issue altogether. If a tenant is creating a nuisance for the neighbors but hasn’t forthrightly 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 clearly do something with respect to the issue. But having said that, the flip side is that if your lease clarifies that you don’t allow wild, loud parties or business activities and you don’t take action, you then might be on the hook in a lawsuit.

The specific terms and language used in the lease are a necessary first step toward holding your tenants accountable for any nuisance or illicit activities. Besides that, taking immediate and appropriate action is also pivotal to keeping yourself from being sued by irritated neighbors.

Intently screening your renters is another beneficial part of keeping yourself out of unwelcome legal trouble, as is doing regular property evaluations. At Real Property Management Diamond, we do all this for our Milford property owners – and more. Would you like to discover more? Don’t forget to get in touch with us online or by phone at 302-313-7700 for more valuable 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.

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