Tenants reporting their cars broken into - LL responsible?

[Edward Seid]

Hello everyone,

I have a SFR rental in Seattle near a university with students as the renters. The house is on hill overlooking the street which runs parallel to the freeway so one side of the street has houses and the other side does not. The street is also a thorough way for pedestrians and other cars that want to avoid ~5-10 blocks of traffic. The attached garage is located in the back of the house, accessible by a one-lane street running parallel to the main street.

Recently, and by recently I mean in the last 6 months, of the 5 tenants living at the rental, 2 have had their cars broken into and a mutual friend had their car stolen. Mail has also been tampered with twice. I would say this area is probably a B+ neighborhood and by no means dangerous.

My question to everyone is, do I need to address this issue of car-prowlers or is it something the tenants should be responsible for? One of the break-ins occurred because the tenant forgot her backpack in her car. I know the landlord should be responsible for providing a safe and secure property, but how far does that extend beyond doors with locks/deadbolts, lockable windows, etc?

I look forward to hearing your inputs!