Can I get sued as a landlord?

T

TMNT

I've just had a "what if my worst nightmare came true" as a landlord moment flash!

Hypothetically if I buy and renovate a home, pay a licensed electrician, builder, plumber to do all the relevant work, but what happens, hypothetically if I left a nail sticking out somewhere eg kitchen and the tenant decides to trip and lands face first on the nail blinding them?

Or

I tile the bathroom, over time, one of the tile lifts up, kid trips over it, and cracks their head on the vanity,

Or

I polish existing floorboards and kid decides to see how much stomping he can do while mummy and daddy are out, falls through, and needs leg amputated?

Are all these situations that I will be liable for and need to consider?

If so, would buying each property in separate trusts be the way to go so If I get sued for millions, then they only have recourse for one ip?

Thanks everyone
 
Have you considered asteroid impact?

Landlords insurance usually includes legal liability cover.

If you actually worry about this sort of thing, buy shares. No legal liability if you're just a shareholder.
 
As above, your building and/or landlord policies will have 10-20m in public liability.

Keep these policies paid up.
 
had an interesting conversation with a few insurnace companies a few years back, if you crash your own car into your other car parked on your property, they will repair the car that you had the accident in, but not the other because it was self inflicted (term?)

so I gave them the hypothetical, if my 4wd breaks stopped, and I drove through every single house on the street, and destroyed all of them , the insurnace company claimed that they would fix every house except mine!

so a street of brand new houses and one trashed one remains! we both had a bit of chuckle
 
Insurance companies have big legal budgets.
Make sure your insurance is great and not just the cheapest
D
 
Landlords can and do get sued.

The first step in preventing this is to make sure all faults are rectified as soon as practical after they are noticed.

Then a good insurance policy is needed. Find out what it doesnt cover you for.

Insurance doesn't cover anything. Off the top of my head I know of 2 cases:

Carpet ripped, landlord knew about it but did nothing. Tenant trip and injured their back.

Broken glass was repaired by a handyman contracted by the agent. Proper quality glass wasn't used. Later tenant punched wall where the glass was (in a fit of anger!) and badly cut his hand. He sued landlord and agent. Agent copt 80% of the damages with landlord remaining 20% or so. Insurance didn't cover as wrong glass used.
 
Terry_w said:
Later tenant punched wall where the glass was (in a fit of anger!) and badly cut his hand. He sued landlord and agent. Agent copt 80% of the damages with landlord remaining 20% or so. Insurance didn't cover as wrong glass used.
Click to expand...

And tenant of course is not at all held responsible for their stupidity, and contributes 0%. Got to love the law. :rolleyes:
 
Biggles said:
And tenant of course is not at all held responsible for their stupidity, and contributes 0%. Got to love the law. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

what is stupid about punching a glass window?

I mean there is nothing wrong with sticking a screw driver into the power point!
 
Terry_w said:
Carpet ripped, landlord knew about it but did nothing. Tenant trip and injured their back.
Click to expand...
It's amazing; I've been on this planet for 52 years..tripped over, smashed into at footy a million times, fallen off pushbikes, motorbikes, fences, trampoline a couple of times, jumped off a garage roof when I was 6, countless crashes at skiing, waterskiing, snowboarding, even tripped over floor rugs and so on...back is still ok.

Gets sore occasionally from sitting on the couch for too long being a potato, and that's about it....

What are the chances that this was a scam? I'd say about 95%. ;)
because of the commonality of events like below...

Broken glass was repaired by a handyman contracted by the agent. Proper quality glass wasn't used. Later tenant punched wall where the glass was (in a fit of anger!) and badly cut his hand. He sued landlord and agent. Agent copt 80% of the damages with landlord remaining 20% or so. Insurance didn't cover as wrong glass used.
Click to expand...

Likelihood of dodginess in the world of tenants - very high.

Sad state of affairs; could apply to most of life, I suppose.
 
I received the latest newsletter from my property manager the other day. It had an article about what a landlord is responsible for, as they are having a few issues where tenants have moved into properties that are not suitable for them. Examples used were moving into an unfenced property on a busy road, or two storey homes without security screens upstairs. They are hazardous to children, but the tenant does not have to take any responsibility now. The article suggested that landlords need to address any potential safety issues and the tenant doesn't need to have any common sense when selecting if a property is suitable for their family. The underlying message I got was, just don't rent to people with small children, as who knows what demands might be thrown at you, as just about anything can be a safety hazard with children if not properly supervised. Seems no one is responsible for their own actions anymore, so easy to blame someone else and take a payout with it. :mad:
 
Biggles said:
The underlying message I got was, just don't rent to people with small children.
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So; no families with teenagers, no little kids, no welfare boguns, or young adults with no rental history...who's left?? :eek:

Ironically, most LL's refuse to allow pets...

As a father of 3 kids - and 2 are under 4 years old, I can safely say animals are less destructive to a house than a 3 year old kid..

Pets might destroy the garden (dogs) but when do tenants look after gardens anyway? :rolleyes:

We have always allowed pets in our IP's.
 
Biggles said:
I received the latest newsletter from my property manager the other day. It had an article about what a landlord is responsible for, as they are having a few issues where tenants have moved into properties that are not suitable for them. Examples used were moving into an unfenced property on a busy road, or two storey homes without security screens upstairs. They are hazardous to children, but the tenant does not have to take any responsibility now. The article suggested that landlords need to address any potential safety issues and the tenant doesn't need to have any common sense when selecting if a property is suitable for their family. The underlying message I got was, just don't rent to people with small children, as who knows what demands might be thrown at you, as just about anything can be a safety hazard with children if not properly supervised. Seems no one is responsible for their own actions anymore, so easy to blame someone else and take a payout with it. :mad:
Click to expand...

Its a sad state of affairs isn't Biggles when a tenant can't even be held responsible for selecting an appropriate dwelling for themselves. How ridiculous!! Obviously the underlying message is that tenants are morons and need to be protected from themselves!

I agree with your sentiment regarding renting out to families with children. My preference is to rent to professionals. They are never home, don't have all day to sit there and find 'things that need fixing' and pay their rent on time!!

I made the mistake of renting one of our ip's in the city to a mum with a baby/toddler. There are never ending requests for things to be fixed, plus the wear and tear on the place is amazing!

Hoping they move on soon.....
 
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