Should the tenant be responsible for the damage or landlorad

Question

It was close to Christmas when my property manager called me and gave me the bad news: one of the tenants was celebrating his son's birthday and invited the boy's uncle to the party. They got into altercation and the uncle was asked to be out. While waiting in the detached garage, he started fire to keep warm and got the fire out of control. The folks detained him before he can flee till the police came to put him in custody. But the damage was done and the entire garage was ruined.

The insurance company covered the expense for restoration except for $1k of deductable and more than $6k of non-recoverable depreciation (insurance policy). Though they started subrogation process to collect that $1k deductible from the perpetrator, I doubt I can recover anything from that guy. My neighbor's garage was also affected and he wanted me to go after the tenant to try to recover anything for my loss and his loss. I talked to my property manager but he said no because he has spoken to two of his attorneys and they both said that the tenants are not liable. Therefore he is not going to threaten to sue them for his loss. If the next door owner wants to sue someone he should go after the uncle who is named on the police report as the person responsible.

So the whole thing seems unfair to me. I am not sure about the attorney's stand on this: the perpetrator was invited to the party, their altercation caused subsequent events to occur. Anyone on this forum ever ran into this situation? Is there anything a landlord can do to minimize his loss? Should the tenant be at least responsible for part of the damage?

Thomas S. · Answer

Tenants are responsible for the actions of their guests.You take the tenant to court and the tenant has the option to take the boys uncle to court. The courts will decide.Do it.

Matthew Paul · Answer

He was the tenants guest , the tenants responsibility .

Account Closed · Answer

Your lease, if it's a standard one, will include a clause that says the tenant and/or their guests are liable for any damage caused by them. Your manager either doesn't know what they're talking about, or they don't want to somehow be sued for getting you this tenant.Definitely go after the tenant at least. As far as the neighbor is concerned, it's not your job to help them sue you or your tenants. Ignore them. If they get a lawyer to sue you, then get a lawyer to deal with them.

Bryan O. · Answer

I would say that given his violence (you mentioned altercation) at a child's birthday party indicates a high risk and unpredictable person. While the tenant may not be able to predict that he would burn the garage down, I would argue that they had plenty of ability to predict that he would do something bad. Knowing that, they should have monitored him until he was gone. Obviously, I'm not an attorney, but sometimes common sense has its place in law.

Michael H. · Answer

@Sean Chen By the way if your neighbor tries to sue you there may be a clause in your landlord's policy that your insurance company will provide an attorney to defend you.

Sean Chen · Answer

I reviewed the lease agreement and found the following clause that indeed stated that the tenant and/or their guests are liable for any damage caused by them. It should be something I can work with. I will need to check if this tenant has renter insurance for liability coverage. "Resident shall promptly notify the landlord in writing of any damages or repairs needed to the property, and shall be liable for any and all damages or repairs caused by the action or inaction of the Resident(s), their guests and/or invitees. Resident shall be responsible for maintaining the premises in the condition in which they were received, including liability for broken windows, doors, and other portions of the premises."

Michael H. · Answer

You might check to see if the perp had primary homeowners or renters insurance. There's typically liability coverage under that.

Sean Chen · Answer

Michael H. Thanks for the info. I had that worked out with the neighbor. He is a kind gentlemen who owned the rental next door for many years but is tired of managing it remotely (he used to live here but moved out of state couple years ago). I bought his rental units from him inheriting the small damage (firefighter had to cut through one of the garage doors about $800 damage and some soffit and fascia damage under the roof). It all started when he called me about the collateral damage to his garage but he actually wanted to unload his property several months prior to the fire.

Account Closed · Answer

I agree with the above responses, tenants are responsible for the actions of their guests. Also, I strongly recommend you find a new property manager. He's as bad as your tenants.

Matthew Kreitzer · Answer

And I think that is the argument that an attorney would likely have to make in this case. There is some attenuation between "violence" and "arson", but that is a matter for the Judge/Jury.