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Landlord Tenant Lawsuits: How to Win Have you ever been to small claims court as a landlord trying to defend yourself against a tenant? Its like class warfare and you lose, the game is stacked and you, the landlord has to climb a wall of trust. The tenant has an automatic edge as the little guy being abused by Goliath. I know of one case where a tenant was habitually late with rents for more than two years. Finally the property management company and the landlord decided to evict after many attempts to get the tenant to pay on time. It went to mediation and here's t the outcome: The tenant gets 1) a check for $10,000 for moving expenses 2) two months free rent 3) a letter of recommendation to the next landlord. I know of another case where a tenant caused some flooding, during a heavy downpour, into the apartment. The damage was a new rug and the sheetrock had to be replaced because if had acted like a wick and was soaked. How did it happen? The tenant had a small outside patio and had never cleared the patio floor drain; it was stuffed with dry leaves and debris. The rain had no place to go and caused water to come in through the sliding door and soak the carpet. The landlord thought it would be a clear case of the tenant having caused the problem because the tenant was negligent. Not so! The landlord and property management company went into arbitration and the tenant was not charged with any responsibility because he claimed that he was not told he had to keep the OUTSIDE drain clear. The cost to the owner was a lawyers fees, new carpet and material and labor to replace one wall.
What did both landlords have in common? Poor Documentation. In the first case the landlord did not have all the letters and emails he sent to the tenant requiring that rent be paid on time. It became a matter of he said/she said and the courts ruled in favor of the tenant. In the second case, although the landlord at the move in walk through did indicate that the tenant was responsible for maintaining the unit and of notifying the management company of any problems, they did not specifically document the conversation about all clogged drains indoors as well as outdoor. Now it seems a matter of common sense when a drain is clogged, you clear it. if it needs a plumber then you call the owner or management company. Well, not necessarily when it comes to the tenant landlord relationship. This tenant had called the owner to fix a clogged garbage disposal unit and a leaky faucet before. The owner indicates that both times the problems were fixed in a reasonable period of time. Unfortunately, the requests were made by phone and so the record of a timely response which would have worked in the landlords favor was not documented. It might have helped the case proving the tenant did understand that clogged drains needed to be fixed.
How to Win 1. Its a good idea to have all non emergency maintenance requests be in writing or email and the response time logged along with a copy of the vendor receipt.2. File it in the tenant file 3. Keep those records for at least three years unless there is a good paper trail, the tenant gets the benefit of the doubt. REsourced from www.yourpropertypath.com You may republish this article, as long as you do not edit and you agree to preserve all links to the author and www.yourpropertypath.com
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