How do you protect yourself from being sued as a landlord ?

[Carmen Lapham]

I'd like to know what a small size landlord does in order to protect them from being sued? Is there more than just putting your business in a LLC?

[Adam Martin]

The best offense is a good defense so know your laws and both the rights for yourself and tenants and follow them and this will stop most lawsuits that have merit.  I self manage so any competent lawyer is going to sue me anyway so I see no point in an llc and focus on a large insurance/umbrella policy to protect my assets.  There is a lot of talk about getting sued and loosing everything but I have yet to see it happen and the only times I am aware of where it got bad for a landlord, they had it coming not following my first bit of advice.  My lease is ever evolving as situations arise I didn’t anticipate but follow your lease, treat tenants fairly, and don’t be a generally bad person and you should be good.  I’ve been threatened with a lot of suits for people who were mad they didn’t qualify or mad they didn’t deserve their deposit back but I’m still waiting on those papers to be served.