Posted by John Merchant on June 16, 2006 at 11:54:49:
And if your rental agreement didn’t cover that, I’d guess you’d have a tough time collecting from your T…but at the same time, he hasn’t a clear shot at making you pay for it.
Maintenance and repairs is one of the things a good LL’s rental agreement should contain.
And a couple of suggestions for any LL…find and join and atttend meetings of your local rental/LL association.
And find and familiarize yourself with your state’s laws so you’ll KNOW answers to simple questions like this about renting in your state.
If a window is broken at my rental property either by a break in or by accident, who is responsible for paying to fix it? At my store that I rent a space from, it is my problem not the owners.
In most states that I’m aware of, the tenant is responsible for any damage they cause over and above normal wear and tear. Now if the neighbors kid put a ball through the window, that was not caused by the tenant, the neighbor is responsible.
I’ve had tenants claim someone outside broke a window but when I got there the glass was sitting outside so that indicated it was broken from the inside. For many years I would eat these losses as a cost of doing business but one week a tenant’s kid wouldn’t stop stuffing stuff down the toilet, they took good care of the home and paid on time.
I finally told them the first time I paid the bill for the plumber because you are such good tenants and I like you. The second time I paid the bill because I knew for sure that you knew for sure that little danny was a problem and you would solve it. Last time I waited to see if you would offer to pay the bill. This time I’m going to have you pay the bill, your legally responsible and I believe I have been more than fair, do you think I’m being unreasonable?
When I got home, I created the “little danny” clause to be put into all future rental agreements. At that time I believed all rental agreements should be short and sweet, that idea was a bad one and my lease’s grew to 7 pages.