The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: sbaTexas on December 11, 2016, 11:20:04 AM
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My tenant informed me that her house was broken into and robbed last night. There is a sliding glass door in the back double locks she says they "took apart"… What responsibilities/liability does a landlord face in situations like this? Owned rental properties for five years and this is my first time dealing with this
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I think you're on the hook to fix the door and any other damages to the building, but not to cover any of her personal belongings. That's what renter's insurance is for, and she pays for that instead of you.
Even in cases where damage to your building is caused by negligence of the tenant, you're generally obligated to pay for repairs. It's part of the job, sorry.
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But you could consider replacing it with a better sliding door that can't be taken apart. Maybe this door was relatively easy to open.
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This doesn't help now, but going forward you can require new tenants to carry renters insurance so there is a party to cover the tenants losses. Right or wrong, the tenant may blame or partially blame the landlord and hope for compensation. Local laws and practices may vary of course.
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But you could consider replacing it with a better sliding door that can't be taken apart. Maybe this door was relatively easy to open.
As long as the door was a standard door, there is no need to blame the landlord.