“It’s called a legal shakedown,” says Robert Mintz in his book Lawsuit Proof. Of the about 15 million lawsuits filed last year in US Courts, the majority of the targets did not do anything they should have been sued for, says Mintz.
Almost every landlord has a pretty good idea that trying to save a few dollars by hiring less-than-competent contractors can result in huge losses. Property owners, after all, are legally responsible for all work done on their properties. It doesn’t matter if the contractor is licensed or not. If an accident occurs on the property that is the result of shoddy workmanship by a contractor, the property owner will pay.
Fortunately, if the contractor who did the work or sub-contracted the work is licensed he or she is on the hook too. The lawyers will go after the one with the most money.. If the contractor who did the work is unlicensed, the property owner will pay, end of story .
What got me thinking about this is that we are having the balcony off our master bedroom repaired. Because of shoddy and sloppy workmanship when the house was built 19 years ago, water ran down behind the ledger of the balcony and dripped into the patio below, eventually rotting the ledger. The company we hired to do the work is fixing it the way it should have been built in the first place. Maybe, just maybe, it won’t leak again.
That brought to mind two articles I wrote in 1996 about Randall Nathan, a San Francisco landlord, who was actually prosecuted by the San Francisco District Attorney Terrence Hallinan, for manslaughter because an improperly constructed deck collapsed killing one of Nathan’s tenants.
Obviously any kind of structural work security should be done by a competent, licensed contractor as the first line of defense against claims of negligence.. But what about hiring someone who drives by in a pickup truck with tools in the back looking for work? Or a day laborer we pick up in a Home Depot parking lot? What if we do the work ourselves?
Painting
An obvious choice for “can’t-do-any-harm contracting” is painting. Or is it? Remember the 15 million lawsuits. People are always looking for someone to blame and sue… Many paints contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and some people are chemically intolerant. The EPA says VOCs can result in “eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system.”
So using paint with VOCs could end up with a landlord on the wrong end of a lawsuit. So that guy in the pickup who got a great deal on paint could end up costing a landlord far more than a discount below the retail price of paint..
Yard Work
Right off the bat we can think of landscapers who leave trash and tools around creating trip hazards. Competent and conscientious contractors of all kinds keep their workplaces neat and tidy at all times, not only for the safety of the public but for their own. But those who are less than conscientious never think of that. But here’s more. Sometimes landscapers spray , and sometimes the sprays can have effects similar to VOCs on people.
Roof Repair
That one seems relatively safe for damage to the public and tenants. Or does it? Granted, most of the danger is to the roofers who might fall off the roof. Of course, if those roofers are not licensed and insured, the property owner pays for the injury. But what if the work is done poorly, the roof leaks, and a tenant’s property becomes water damaged? The landlord pays. Of course, that unlicensed, unbonded and uninsured contractor is long gone and doesn’t have any money, anyway.
Ice and Snow Removal
Do neighborhood kids still come around and ask to shovel snow off sidewalks? I don’t know; I live in Arizona. But if they do, tell ‘em, “beat it, kid.” A property owner can be held liable if snow is removed negligently. You know how sometimes icy patches are left on a sidewalk after the snow is removed. Suppose someone slips and falls? It is better not to remove the snow at all than to do it poorly. Sometimes the property owner is responsible, sometimes not, but no matter what, legal fees can bankrupt a landlord.
Property owners are always liable when they know — or should have known — about a dangerous situation. So, even those seemingly “contractor-proof” repairs and maintenance can still result in a lawsuit against a property owner. Check everything. Be a pessimist and assume that a job has been done wrong until you can satisfy yourself it was done right. Do regular inspections of rental properties, looking especially for hazardous situations. Always figure someone is looking for a way to sue you.
2 Comment on “Lawsuits Happen”
GABE MALPIEDI
April 2, 2014 at 11:42 pm
IF THE LANDLORD HAS A CLAUSE IN HIS LEASE THAT HE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE
FOR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS WHO HE HIRES FORS TENANTS THE NEED
WORK
AND THE CONTRACTOR TURNS OUT TO BE UNLICENSED AND MOST LIKELY UNINSURED, CAN THE LANDLORD STILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IN SPITE OF THIS CLAUSE.
Bob Cain
April 3, 2014 at 3:54 pm
The short answer, yes. It is up to the person who hires a contractor to ensure that the contractor is not only competent but also licensed. Anyone we hire to work on our properties is our responsibility, licensed or not. If a licensed contractor does sloppy work and someone is injured, we are still ultimately responsible, though we can still go after the contractor because he will be insured and bonded. If an unlicensed contractor does sloppy work and someone is injured, we are not only ultimately responsible but most likely unable to get satisfaction from the contractor because he doesn’t have either insurance or a bond.
Then there’s what happens if we get sued. Imagine telling the judge, “He said he was licensed, but I didn’t check.”
The logical response would be, “Did you check his references?”
“Well, I called some people whose names he gave me.”
It is easy to check if a contractor is licensed in most states. In Arizona, for example, I can simply go the the Registrar of Contractors web page and type in the contractor’s or company’s name. It will say not only if the contractor is licensed but also if the contractor has had any complaints against him. Regardless of how any state enables to public to check on licensees, a contractor who says he is licensed should be able to provide the license number.