By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

Ever call or visit a business, ask a basic question, and receive an answer of “I do not know?” To make matters worse, there is not even an offer of “I will find out”, or “Let me ask a supervisor.” It is rather scary and it is also profound. In business we work so hard to build our companies, market our properties, or create features and services, all to find out nobody in our own company has a clue!

While visiting a business recently, I asked a simple question pertaining to a geographic location. Of course, the woman on duty had no clue. She did not know what highway exit she was located at, nor could she tell me east, west, north, or south! That is a huge pet peeve to me. How can you permit your employees to be that completely oblivious of their surroundings? It is unconscionable, but so very common.

Well there is a solution! The solution is so basic that it is hard to believe it is not done more often. Create an on-going FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for your team. Every single company, and property you manage, should have a FAQ. Employees should have this at their desk or on their desktop. Digital or paper, laminated or in a plastic sleeve, does not matter! No matter what, there needs to be an at-a-glance tool so the most basic of customer questions can be answered. Let me be perfectly clear here, it is not the employee’s job to know this! It is your job as the property manager, leasing director, management company owner, or brokerage company owner to make sure they know!

For instance, if the FAQ is for a building, the top question should be directions (from the north, south, east, and west). The directions should include the address of the property, an easy to explain set of instructions on how to enter your property, and where to park! And for goodness sake, do not ignore public transportation. If someone calls your property and asks what bus to take, you had better know. Think about how insane it would be for someone to call your company, to ask about renting your property, but then not be able to tell them how to get there! Believe me it happens to the best of us, but with an FAQ as a standard across all desks and desktops it does not matter because everyone will be equipped with the knowledge and power to assist a customer!

Consider the most basic questions like:

• How do I get to the property?
• How long have you been in business?
• When was this building built?
• How tall is the building? (feet and stories)
• How big is the property? (acres and square feet)
• Is there a post office nearby?
• Where is the nearest hospital?

If your staff does not have this information at the ready, at the worst it could be the difference between a life or death situation! Everyone should know how to get to the nearest hospital or storm shelter, etc. Sometimes we are so busy with the stuff that comes up day after day and is asked over and over that we forget to learn other important information about our company and properties.

Capturing this knowledge and turning it into an FAQ can make a tremendous tool for marketing as well as day to day assistance when your customers or clients call!

By Jo-Anne Oliveri, ireviloution intelligence, Brisbane, Australia

Does this make sense to you?

Last week I was in discussions with a respected sales agency. This agency had a huge sales business with 12 or so sales consultants during the peak of the region’s boom. They now only have the directors, three of them, working as sales consultants.

Due to the huge decline in the property sales market they decided to focus their attention on their property management business. They recognized that this side of the business provided constant cash flow and kept their doors open during the shrinking sales market. It also helped to stabilize their dwindling cash reserves.

In recognizing the need to manage their property management operations they assigned one of the directors to focus his attention 100% on property management. All good and logical thinking.

They planned their strategies for business stabilization and growth during the declining sales market. The business owners decided that buying a rent roll would be part of their strategy in growth and increasing market share. So far, so good. Good planning with purpose, logic, and strategy.

They were satisfied with the purchase of the rent roll. However, moving forward, here is where they start dropping the ball. The director is sick of property management – he wants to go back to selling. He cannot work out that listing managements is in fact the same as listing properties for sale, it requires the same skills. Does he not recognize the fact that managing a property generates immediate cash flow and long term wealth creation? Does he not realize that by having a solid property management business with a respected reputation he will generate sales? Apparently not.

The director was complaining about the fact that a property owner he knew listed their property for sale with another agency. What is absurd about this is that the property is managed through his agency and he has built a relationship with this property owner over a period of six years. In disbelief he called the property owner and asked him why he listed with another agency. The property owner told the director that he had no problem at all with him but he had major problems with his property management business.

Wow, there you have it, straight from the property owner’s mouth. Wouldn’t you as a business owner jump on this and get your property management business sorted. Well here’s where I was completely floored. I asked him how much the commission would have been if he sold the property. The commission would be in the vicinity of $15,000. Ouch, that’s a lot of money left on the table (especially in tight markets)! A declaration that would make you take action. Apparently not in this instance. He doesn’t want to believe that other clients may feel the same way and believes that this is a one off instance. At first he was seething that he had lost an “in the bag” sale due to the incompetency of his property management team. By the end of the meeting and once he started realizing that his property management services are a result of his and the other directors lack of direction and support, he started blaming the property owner for being disloyal and now believed that this loss of listing was a “one only”. Needless to say, I was quite shocked at how he had turned the whole situation around and now there was no blame at all on the agency.

Now here is the toe curler. The director then said to me that he had been noticing that a lot of agencies are rebranding their property management business so that it appears to be a different from their sales business. He was considering doing this. He believes this will protect the reputation of the agency’s sales business. You can see why I was shocked at the absurdity of his thinking. Does he really believe that consumers are that naive? Apparently he does.

He asked for my opinion on this. Needless to say, I don’t have to say here on this blog what my opinion is on rebranding your property management business just so consumers can be tricked into believing it is a completely separate entity to the sales business. Even though I do have an opinion on rebranding your property management company, it is certainly not for the reason of hood winking consumers. That is, in my opinion, displaying total disrespect to your consumers and makes no business sense at all. I would much prefer to take the positives from this and understand that as a business owner I’ve now been given feedback that I can take positive action on and turn my business around by creating ways to win back customer loyalty.

Rebrand or improve your business – what would you do?

By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

When creating an Internet presence and building a new public website, the first thing you’ll want to do is identify a domain name as close as possible to your company or property name. Don’t bother searching in multiple locations for your potential site’s name — you’re too busy for that! Go straight to a search engine like namechecklist.com.

Create your website on a platform such as WordPress. Put in the time, effort, and money to design and plan the site. Consider paying a designer to create a logo and graphics. Add content to the site, such as (in no particular order):

1. About Us
2. Services Properties and/or Listings
3. Team
4. Executive Bios
5. Contact Us
6. Affiliations
7. Blog
8. Testimonials

After all this work is done — content is added, graphics are selected, colors are finalized, fonts, headlines, and widget boxes are chosen — you (and only you, as you spearheaded the project!) can send out an email to everyone in your contact list to say, “Look! We have a new website and blog!” Yippee!

But then, if you’re like most website owners, the site sits, and sits, and sits. From time to time you might add a blog article, or update listings. If you’re smart, you thought to add a live feed of listings from another database service provider that’s integrated into the site. When new employees come and go, maybe you’ll update the site when you get around to it.

Don’t fall into this trap! Your website should be a living, breathing, active representation of you and your company. Make time to promote on social media. Push out your blog articles to LinkedIn and to all of the LinkedIn groups you belong to (maximum of 50 per person!). Encourage your team to tell all of their contacts about your new website or blog. Ensure that the domain URL is on every single thing you publish or post. Place simple share buttons on your pages or blog posts via the admin tools. Anything less, and you’re virtually guaranteeing that no one will ever share anything about you, your firm, or your great content.

While you’re at it, let your employees have access to sites like Facebook, and encourage them to keep an up-to-date LinkedIn profile (the modern-day business card). Your people and properties will be found and links will be out there in Google, where they can be discovered or exploited by new clients. If your website is found, that means traffic! Traffic is numbers, and numbers mean increased chances that you’ll meet a new client, tenant, or even find a buyer.

And get a Twitter page. Twitter is neither complicated nor difficult to navigate. It will bring t-r-a-f-f-i-c to your firm, which is only a problem if you plan to remain under the radar. Remember, you want every client to see your name in the media or an online content stream.

By Jo-Anne Oliveri, ireviloution intelligence, Brisbane, Australia

There are many reasons why we need to recruit. We live in a world where there are unlimited opportunities for advancement and success. So, it stands to reason that your team members come and go based on their own personal career aspirations and opportunities that present themselves.

It’s always wise to know individual team member’s personal goals. You should ask them what these are at the initial interview and then discuss it at monthly one-to-one meetings. By knowing what your team member’s long-term career aspirations are, you are then able to manage your team, business, and service by design.

In some instances you will be able to fulfill team members’ career aspirations by training and promoting them through your business. This must not be in a vain attempt to keep them working for your agency. It must be for the overall good of you and the team member, as well as your business and clients. Remember, the best business philosophy is always “Win/Win”. When someone has reached their peak it’s also usually the time they start to lose interest. The longer you try to hang onto them by giving them all sorts of incentives, the more pain you put yourself and your business through. Whilst the team member is still arriving at the office each morning and sitting at the desk, they may only be a chair-warmer as in their mind they have already “checked out”.

And that’s not a bad thing. It’s all about planning, understanding, and knowing when to recruit a new team member. If you diligently hold your monthly one-to-ones and ensure the meeting is purposeful, you have insight into team members’ long-term goals. And so, their resignation will not come as a shock and you will not have to put yourself through the stress of recruiting by default (I can just see all of you nodding your head remembering the chain of events this type of recruiting causes). Recruiting by default is a costly mistake financially, emotionally, and to your brand and reputation. Put yourself back in the power seat.

By understanding your team and their career aspirations, you grow and nurture loyal team members. Yes, they may come and go and, as I said, that’s not a bad thing. The wonderful thing is that they leave feeling loyal to your agency. They will be long-term advocates because they still love your brand and culture. And, because you have a business by design, you are assured continuity of service to your clients. Clients understand that team members come and go but because you have a business backed up by systems and processes, clients’ histories remain intact. So again no more stress for you, the team, or clients when a team member resigns.

The other bonus here is that because you know your team member’s long term career aspirations, you have a good idea of when they may start looking at other opportunities to fulfill their goals. That means you have the ability to promote from within your agency and the new recruit can be a trainee who started as an assistant or receptionist. The new recruit then has already had the opportunity to learn your business’ culture from the inside out and most likely has started forming relationships with your existing clients. That means when someone “new” is managing their property they already know their name and are familiar with their voice.

I urge you all to slow down. It is always best to recruit for attitude and train for skill. If someone has the right attitude they can learn the skill. By training for skill you are also training them to internalize your business’ culture and service standards so they become your brand, and love it.

By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

As managers and owners of property are we not supposed to deliver the best service, and keep our properties as safe and clean as possible? Is our staff learning and keeping on top of latest techniques and the current trends in technology? Do we empower our teams to deliver the best they can to maintain or lease our property? If not, why? What is your excuse?

Are there not enough hours in the day? Are funds tight? Is an emergency, like bad weather or governmental changes stopping you, giving you an excuse for not training, or teaching your team how to be the best?

Let’s try to stop creating excuses and make room for the good stuff! Instead of complaining about how hard it is or how much it costs, let’s take a proactive approach to the teaching and training problem! Now I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “How can I accomplish this?”

How about setting aside some time to sharpen the saw? Why not allow for so many hours per month or per week for training or learning? Call it “Education Hours” or “Education Day”. Whatever you allow for, give it a prominent time in your man-hours and be consistent, setting a standard day or time each month, that way it is expected.

Using your existing pool of service providers is a great way to obtain on-site instructors. Many of our valued service providers are eager to present their knowledge to my team. Bankers, attorneys, accountants, window washers, janitorial contractors, and even elevator experts, have excellent information about safety, security, techniques, and technical processes that your staff can gain a tremendous amount of insight from. If you have the funds, look into online seminars. Schedule group webinars or online instructors for multiple team members at one time. No longer do employees have to drive great distances or stay overnight in order to attend training sessions. Thanks to the internet, the training can now come to you and your company.

Also, with today’s technology you can act as your own trainer, using your own video stars – your staff! Simply create your own internal video sessions and save those sessions for orientations, recurring training, and cross training. It is always good for everyone to know what is expected when staff members are on vacation or call in sick. If everyone is cross trained using the videos, filling in for other staff members is not as painful since everyone will know what the other person does. Even a video put together using your mobile phone can be a great introduction to a property, the mechanical rooms, and other key areas of the building. Capturing these types of tutorials can save time and add a fantastic tool to your arsenal. They also provide a great selling tool for future business assignments. Videos can be posted on YouTube and categorized as company orientation tools, showing your clients how you work to keep your staff trained. Today, the days of 3 ring binders and manuals are out, and video, audio, and online tools are in!

Now that you have some easy and cost effective ways to train your team, and the way to keep them trained, go out and give it a try!

By Jo-Anne Oliveri, ireviloution intelligence, Brisbane, Australia

Currently, there are many challenges facing the property management industry. I believe the property management industry is unknowingly creating many of these challenges because they are not identifying and addressing the real problem. I consider the real problem to be how principals operate their property management business.

Problem number one comes when principals need to find a new team member, the “Property Manager”.

Principals don’t seem to fully understand the roles in their property management business. Any available position is immediately referred to as a “property manager”. However, what skills, attitude, and knowledge are really required for this available position i.e. what is the role that really needs filling? Many principals do not consider this question and therefore do not recruit the right team member for the job.

The normal process is therefore as follows: The recruitment agency is contacted because recruiting through self-advertising is apparently all too difficult. The recruitment agency is asked if they have any available property managers. Of course, they have a whole database of self-professed property managers. They maintain a wonderful database of property managers to choose from that are all experienced, with many years of service under their belts, and have achieved amazing results so far. They are also highly skilled and trained so they come at a price. Several thousand dollars to the recruitment agency later, you have a “property manager” on a salary in the top percentile. But have you ever wondered on what grounds is this recruitment agency recommending them?

I believe the recruitment agency, just like our industry, bases their commission (fee) on the salary achieved for recruits. So, the higher the salary, the higher the commission you have to pay them for a recruit that in all too many instances only lasts a few months. And then…you go through the process (and expense!) all over again.

I was chatting to a recently appointed general manager of a large property management company last week. The principal, upon the GM’s appointment, told her that he was fed up with the huge outlay and spiraling costs of recruitment. In the last year alone he had spent over $95,000 on recruitment costs. That is the tangible fee i.e. the fee he has paid to recruitment agencies. He has not taken into consideration the non-tangible costs. What are these? Damage to business and reputation, pressure on productivity and efficiency, lack of continuity in management, costs for new business cards, and email set-up. Yes, there are enormous costs for recruiting so it pays to get it right the first time!

This particular principal wanted the newly appointed GM to take property managers out for a coffee and chat to encourage them to work for his agency. Bad move! What this principal must focus on is retention. I’m not talking about retention of managements that naturally occurs as a result of team retention. Think about it. Wouldn’t you, as a business owner, gain far better results by investing in systems, processes, training, and resources, rather than continually paying the high costs for recruiting, especially when you recruit through a recruitment agency?

By having systems, processes, training, resources, and of course policies in place you are in a position to proactively manage and monitor your team and of course your business. It is far less expensive this way (and that’s just taking into consideration the tangible cost alone). Your result is retention of team members, and team loyalty in return leads to client loyalty.

When recruiting for new team members it is usually as a result of growth. Having systems, processes, training, and resources in place means you manage every area of your business, thus allowing you to grow team members, and effectively groom them to be your next property manager when a position is created (due to growth). Knowing your business means that when you need to recruit, you do the recruiting on your terms, at your rate, and best of all, you don’t outlay costs on a recruitment agency that provides you with an overly expensive service and product.

When you’re in control, recruiting becomes easy. Why? Because you can now recruit the right person for the right role as you have designed your business. Therefore the recruitment process will meet your business requirements.

Like all my articles, this topic lends itself to more posts! In the meantime though, please keep in mind one thing – hire slow, fire fast! Don’t be in a hurry to hire another team member just to fill a position. Hire by design and with purpose, and if you make a mistake in your choice of recruit, use the probationary period to fire fast before damage is done to your brand and reputation.

By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

Do you make decisions and move forward or do you contemplate things to the point that you become a speed bump? What is a speed bump? A speed bump is the person in an organization that stops progress and/or is afraid to make a decision out of fear of failure.

In an organization, being the speed bump is not always a bad thing. However, day in and day out operations suffer when you are the property manager, supervisor, or property owner and it is your actions that delay or stop momentum. When managing teams, it is important to have a keen sense of judgment, and to be quick on your feet with respect to analysis, so that you are able to make smart decisions.

If you put a system in place to make comparisons easy to analyze, those types of decisions can be made much more efficiently. Now you have a built-in safety net that enables you to move faster, so you can keep making progress. For instance, if you are the one reviewing quotes, create a matrix submittal form of the recurring questions you always ask before making the decision. Ask your staff to submit all requests for expenditures using your form. It can be a simple columnar form that permits an executive level overview and forces the staff, or the providers of goods and services, to answer all of your concerns, BEFORE, it hits your desk for review.

Why reject requisitions over and over because your staff was not prepared with a justification for purchase? Worse yet, why let piles of requests sit on your desk, waiting for you to review them? With your form in place, you are encouraging and providing a proactive environment, rather than a reactive one. Each request can be delivered to you with a summary cover sheet to make quick work of daily decisions. Now you can move it out of your inbox and off your desk. This keeps your team momentum going, and stops you from being the speed bump!

By Colin McCarthy, J.D., Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA

As everyone knows, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the greatest movie ever made. Especially for the scene involving the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. In it, several of the Knights of the Round Table are cut down in a blood bath by a particularly vicious, cute, cuddly white bunny rabbit. Why? They were not aware of its dangerous propensities! Their Scottish guide tried to warn them before the unlucky Knights marched into certain death. He tried, but they wouldn’t listen.*

We have already discussed the issue of control as being the hook on which a landlord will/can be liable for injuries related to property. If the landlord has control over the property in question, and could have taken steps to prevent an injury because of that control, they will not be able to avoid responsibility for injuries related to dangerous conditions on that property they control. Which leads to the obvious question: What about dogs?

Well, I mean animals. Cats, Parakeets, Vicious bunnies, etc. What’s a landlord to do about these animals? Well, again, it’s all very clear. It depends on how dangerous the particular animal is, what the landlord knows, and where the animal is.

If the animal is not on property the landlord controls, there is no duty. This is in accord with our earlier control discussion. However, if the animal is a permanent guest of the landlord’s tenant, the issue is two-fold:

1. The animal’s dangerous propensity.

2. The landlord’s knowledge of the same.

Regarding the first, the question focuses on the animal’s tendencies. Is it a vicious animal, i.e. does it have known behaviors that are likely or have a tendency to cause harm? For example, dogs that bite are construed as vicious. Even dogs which are unusually large and happy, that create a fall hazard, can be construed as being dangerous.

This was the issue in a case that I litigated a long time ago. The whole issue was whether a large dog had a known propensity to greet visitors in a particular fashion which subjected the visitors to a fall risk. The plaintiff was so greeted and injured herself. The issue was prior knowledge of the propensity and whether it was dangerous. The dog owner was the defendant, but the landlord might have been liable, IF . . .

The landlord had knowledge of the tenant’s animal’s dangerous propensities. If they had no knowledge of the animals, the landlord is not likely liable. If they did know, then they may be found liable for – wait for it – not removing the animal by evicting its owner. It is the failure to use reasonable care in this regard, if it leads to injury to a third party, which attaches liability.

The Scottish guide, in the Holy Grail, who had knowledge of the bunny’s dangerous propensities, did what the law might require of a landlord in California. He warned of the animals dangerous propensities. Had the guide owned or controlled the property on which the dangerous bunny was present, he could’ve and maybe should’ve evicted that owner, and thus protected any visitors to the premises from its vicious attacks!

* After several knights were felled by the vicious bunny, the rest of the knights and King Arthur had to resort to the old reliable: Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

This blog submission is only for purposes of disseminating information. It does not constitute legal advice. The statements in this blog submission do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Robinson & Wood, Inc. or its clients. No attorney-client relationship is formed by virtue of reading this blog entry or submitting a comment thereto. If you need legal advice, please hire a licensed attorney in your state.

By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

In the history of property ownership and property management, as far back as the Stone Age (maybe not that far back), we have always called our customers “tenants” and for some reason it just stuck like glue. We can try to shake the term, but no matter how we spin it, turn it, or twist it the relationship comes back full circle to calling them “tenants” and not customers. It is rather maddening to say the least. Even though I preach this and believe it, I catch myself using the term because nobody understands who I am speaking about when I say “customer!”

What drives me batty is that when you consider all of the blood, sweat, and tears we put into marketing, promotions, “tenant” retention, newsletters, “tenant” parties, and “tenant” appreciation, why do we not refer to our “tenants” as customers? It just does not make logical sense.

If you go to Disney World, the tourists are called “guests” NOT “tourists”! Disney had a good idea and they pushed that idea so hard that it is ingrained in everybody, including the “guests!” If you have ever been to Disney World or Disney Land you know what I mean. The point is Disney believed that each person who entered “the property” was a guest and NOT a tourist or even a customer. Disney wants everyone to feel special and privileged, just like a guest.

So back to my original point, why in our industry of property management, do we not refer to our valuable tenants as customers? I think we need to understand this concept; even if we are stuck on the word “tenant” the meaning still needs to be customer. As an industry, let us all put the word “customer” back on the table. First of all, let’s start with who our customer is, as that may be the core of our problem. The conflict now arises in your mind because you are all thinking, “Wait a minute Linda, the owner of the property is my customer too!” Yes, that is correct and that is a fact for us as property managers. Without our property owner, we have no job! So, our property owners are customers as well. Now there is a pull and tug for some of us. It may also cause a debate. Which customer do you please or better yet which customer is more important?

The answer is quite simple. You do what makes both customers happy! Yes, it is actually achievable. Okay, so there are exceptions to everything, but for the most part, if your customers are happy, your other customers are happy too!

How? Well for instance, every single time a customer (tenant) moves in, your customer (property owner) is happy. Now, the job is to keep that customer (tenant) happy so they do not move out. Again, that is keeping your customer (property owner) happy. What is the point of doing all of the work to keep a customer (spending money on improvements, marketing, and signs), and then they move out of your property because of something you control? So what does this boil down to? Customer service, of course! Customer service is the core of it all. You can twist it, turn it, tweak it and maneuver it, but no matter what you say or do, good customer service will always win! Is it easy? Absolutely not! Nobody said our jobs were easy. Remember, if it were easy, they would not need us. (Read Circle of (A Property’s) Life).

However, no matter the difficulty, your job must be done to the best of your ability; with the talent and the cards you have been dealt. You owe that to your customer (property owner), and by contract you are legally obligated to deliver those services. The same holds true for the other customer (tenant) because they too have signed a contract (lease). Funny how there are so many parallels to these business relationships.

For example, if you manage a building that was built in 1904 you cannot expect it to perform like a building that was built in 2012! So if you think your building is old or tired and needs upgrading, you are probably correct. However, it should still be impeccably clean, painted, safe, and in good repair. No it is not high-tech or state of the art, but those occupying the property and those who own the property expect you to do the best you can with what you have! In other words, if you know who your customer is at all times, you can deliver what the customer needs and cater to what is there, not what is not there.

Now that you understand these simple points you need to go back and think of ways to deliver the excellence. Every single day we need to ask ourselves and our team, “What have we done for our customers (tenants and owners) today?” Make this a question your entire team thinks about. What is it that you can do around your property that would actually please your customers? For a property owner customer it may be timely information, accurate reports, 100% occupancy, community awards, maximization of real estate value, and return calls, etc. For the tenant customer it might be clean common areas, friendly staff, responsive maintenance technicians, follow up, etc. In any case, no matter what type of property it is and no matter its age, there is always room for improvement. Just keep the focus on customer service every single day, and you will naturally begin to deliver the excellence all of your customers expect!

By Colin McCarthy, J.D., Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA

I once lived in a house in downtown San Jose that was next to an abandoned “historic” house. The house was only abandoned because it was “historic.” The city had an ordinance that prevented the owner from demolishing the building and rebuilding it, or selling it. Because the house was built before a certain time, the city ordinance prohibited him from doing anything with the property other than fixing it up. Rather than doing that, in protest, he did nothing with the property. And I mean nothing, other than board it up.

Mistake! You see it was downtown San Jose. It was right in the middle of urban, night time activities. The abandoned home soon became a sort of an attractive spot for the seedier and less fortunate souls. We frequently had to call the police. There were the typical late night guests, drinking, broken glass, and other non-printable activities going on in there. After enough of these visits, the neighbors reported the landlord to the city, and hearings were held. Fines were levied. Landlords got mad. Fences were put up.

Pulling the restrictive ordinance and the obstinacy of the landlord out of the equation, the landlord had a duty to know what was going on at his property. He should have inspected it, even if he did not have tenants.

What kinds of things can happen, from a legal perspective, if you do not inspect and repair? What will happen if the property falls into disrepair under your watch? Well, you can be sued for breach of contract. But if it gets really bad, you can be sued for a tort, too. How about for emotional distressed caused by an uninhabitable residence? For unfair business practices?

At least in California you can. Consider the facts in a case we cited in a recent post:

“Regarding the condition of the subject premises, appellant alleged that: ‘On or about October 8, 1974, to the present, numerous defective and dangerous conditions were in existence, including, but not limited to leaking of sewage from the bathroom plumbing; defective and dangerous electrical wiring; structural weaknesses in the walls; deteriorated flooring; falling ceiling; leaking roof; dilapidated doors; broken windows; and other unsafe and dangerous conditions. These defective conditions were unknown to plaintiff at the time she moved in to the premises, but as she continued to live on the premises, she became increasingly aware of them.” (Italics added.)

Also attached to the complaint was a copy of the Kern County Health Department’s notice to vacate and demolish the subject premises, which listed the following violations among others: heavy cockroach infestation, broken interior walls, broken deteriorated flooring on front porch, falling ceiling, deteriorated, overfused electrical wiring, lack of proper plumbing connection to sewage system in bathroom, sewage under bathroom floor, leaking roof, broken windows, and fire hazard.”*

Pretty bad, no doubt. But this particular landlord was sued not only for rent, but for the intentional infliction of emotional distress the tenant suffered. She repeatedly asked for repairs and informed the landlord of these problems. He did nothing. She informed him again. He did nothing. She did what all smart people do in such circumstances. She talked to a lawyer and sued.

At first it did not look good. The trial court limited her to breach of implied warranty of habitability, and limited her damages to rent payment. The appellate court disagreed, and allowed her to sue for all manner of civil wrongs related to the landlord’s alleged intentional neglect.

And although it’s not a discussion for this post, most insurance policies do not cover damages caused by intentional conduct. So not only was this landlord being sued, his insurance company might not have paid for any award against him.

So remember. If a tenant asks for a repair, don’t ignore. Inspect.

*Stoiber v. Honeychuck, 101 Cal. App. 3d 903, 912 (1980)

This blog submission is only for purposes of disseminating information. It does not constitute legal advice. The statements in these blog submissions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Robinson & Wood, Inc. or its clients. No attorney-client relationship is formed by virtue of reading this blog entry or submitting a comment thereto. If you need legal advice, please hire a licensed attorney in your state.