4 Common Tenant Lawsuits and How to Avoid Them
Category Advice
Being a landlord is complicated enough as it is, the last thing you need is a lawsuit to add to your stress. Rather than tell you what to do if the situation arises, we want to make sure it never has the chance to!
Here are the four most common grounds for tenant lawsuits we see, and how you can make sure you never come to see them for yourself:
Not meeting health and safety standards
Obvious? It should be, yet we see many landlords neglect the safety of their tenants. If the condition of the property is compromisable to your tenant's wellbeing, you are violating health hazards and safety rules, and your tenant will have grounds to sue you.
How can you avoid this? Between tenant turnover, ensure you have your property inspected and necessary repairs handled. If any safety issues arise during a tenant's stay, know that ignoring the problem can put you in a very unwanted position down the line.
Secrecy about the condition of the property
Hiding information relating to the condition of your property can also land you in trouble. Compromising the health of your tenant isn't the only thing that could land you in trouble - withholding important information from them could also result in a lawsuit.
This includes information such as: a sexual offender living in your area, or a recent death on your property, and other reasons you should make yourself aware of when accommodating tenants.
False claims on security deposits
It's your job as a landlord to make sure you know and fully understand all renting laws. It's also important to ensure your tenant understands their lease agreement. An essential clause to include in your agreement is a security deposit. This will ensure that all damages to your property caused by your tenant must be covered by them, and can be deducted from their security deposit.
To avoid being sued on grounds of a false claim on the security deposit, ensure you have a thorough inspection of your property before your tenant moves in. Keeping pictures with dates of your property and assets will make it very difficult for your tenant to claim anything against you.
Discrimination against current and potential tenants
Asking questions or adding clauses to your rental contract that discriminate against your current or applying tenants can easily land you with a lawsuit. The Fair Housing Act prohibits landlords from refusing their rental to applicants for reasons relating to race, religion, gender, national origin, disability or familial status.
Fighting these allegations could result in a huge waste of time and money so it's important to be aware not to provoke the possibility. You do this by treating all your applicants equally and ensuring to accommodate everyone, including people with disabilities..
If tenant screening and management seems like too big of a task to manage yourself, we can help. Reach out to SAProperty.com for professional and experienced property management services!
Author: SApropety.com
