Broken Window - Who pays?

[Kim R.]

Hi all,

We recently purchased our first rental property. On a recent visit to take measurements for some other repairs I noticed the front door has a window pane (about 6x8" pane) broken. This was not broken when we purchased the fourplex last month. The tenant in that unit has been there 3 months.

How would you approach this? Do we pay or do they? 

Thanks a lot!

Kim

[Michael Boyer]

Tenant pays (or deducted from deposit) for damage (not wear and tear and this is the former), but may need to look at cause.... Thinking about who uses the door most (tenant and guests), it may be their misuse or carelessness. But good to ask just in case. Unless random vandalism, I would guess it's  tenant's doing. In fact, I would guess it was done opening the door too wide, hitting furniture on it, or swinging it open at move in (some of the greatest potential for damage there).

My tip--ideally, do a checklist at move in (like renting a car) and make sure they sign and note any damage (see below sources). If you did that, it makes the deposit deduction easier.  Even if they did it and admit, it may be tough to get them to pay out of pocket for it. But you can still fix it, document that you did it, let them know it was under their care at the time and that you will take it from the deposit at move out.....(One caveat, if you did not have the move in checklist, making it harder to document condition, and they are disputing it or did not do it, then it may be just part of landlord tuition payments... a lesson learned.)....

A related note, with first property, give the tenants a clear "wear and tear" versus damage/broken  sheet with the move in or transition paperwork. Leigh Robinson has one in his yellow landlording book and Nolo, too, I think in the Every Landlord's Legal. Or just make your own with examples.