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

Well my last post was so good I did not have the courage to write another. About six months ago we were discussing various scenarios by which a landlord could be held liable in California for injuries or property damage occasioned by her tenants. We discussed how, if she knows about a tenant’s animals’ dangerous propensities, she might have a duty to prevent injuries of property damage to others arising from such dangerous propensities. Citation to the holy hand grenade scene must have subconsciously made me think I had reached my pinnacle in blog writing material. No more blog posts! Until now.

What inspired this sudden turn of events? Alcohol. And a recent Buffalo Wild Wings beer with a Buildium person. As we discussed Buildium and life over beers, it occurred to me that I needed to re-engage the ATPM blog readers regarding the perils of tenants’ overindulgence in alcohol and resultant personal injuries and property damage. Is there liability? If the landlord knows the tenant has a gun and is a heavy drinker, is she liable if the tenant shoots someone while drunk? Is the drinker the equivalent of a dangerous dog?

In California, the landlord will not have a duty where she merely knows the tenant is a drinker and has guns. In one case, the plaintiff was a visitor of the tenants and was shot when the tenant was drinking. The landlord knew the tenant was a drinker and knew he had firearms. The landlord was not aware of any circumstances that suggested the tenant was dangerous with the guns when drinking. So there really was no notice to the landlord of a danger she should have prevented or been warned about. ”If the court concludes the injury was not foreseeable, there was no duty.”  Sturgeon v. Curnutt, 29 Cal. App. 4th 301, 306 (1994).  The court here concluded the injury was not foreseeable. And thus the landlord had no duty to prevent it. The landlord won.

In a similar case, a college was exonerated from civil liability for injuries sustained after some students got drunk and went racing.  I’m sorry — “became intoxicated” and “engaged in a speed contest.” In this case, the court held that it was not foreseeable that in-dormitory drinking would lead to an off-campus automobile drag race. The “conduct of students, without known violent propensities and without knowledge that they would drink to excess and thereafter operate motor vehicles, does not rise to the level of foreseeable harm as does a case where the tenant has a known vicious dog.”  Baldwin v. Zoradi, 123 Cal. App. 3d 275, 294 (1981).

Obviously, the appellate justices in that case had not seen the second-greatest movie of all time — Animal House.

This blog submission is only for purposes of disseminating information. It does not constitute legal advice. The statements in this 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.

A line from John Belushi’s character in the 1978 movie Animal House sums up the concerns many landlords have when it comes to renting to college students: “Food fight!”

While it’s true students can be hard on rental properties, many property managers’ fears are overstated. Sure, students can be demanding renters, but the disadvantages of renting to them are often outweighed by the fact that college students represent a large pool of potential rental income. And, often, they’ll pay top dollar to boot! Consider Steve Miller, a successful real estate investor who chose to rent to college students at the State University of New York at Cobleskill because “student rents are so lucrative.”

So how do you reconcile the potential for increased wear and tear with the promise of higher rents and fewer vacancies? The big shots on Wall Street call it risk management. Others call it common sense.

1. Ask for a guarantee
Forget about running a credit report on college students. Chances are they won’t have much credit history to look at. Instead, get a parent to sign the lease as a guarantor or co-signer and run the credit report on Mom or Dad.

2. Collect a larger deposit
Students aren’t inherently bad, but many of them do cause more damage than your average renter. That’s why many landlords ask college students for a larger security deposit than normal—one or even two months’ rent. But be careful. Some states limit the amount of security deposit you can collect so be sure you know the rules.

3. Stop by for a visit
Most leases have a provision that allows the landlord (or his agent) to inspect rental properties during the agreement term; however, many landlords never take advantage of this clause. This can be a mistake, especially when it comes to college students. You don’t need to bring the white glove with you, but stopping by on a regular basis will help you spot problems early on and keep your tenants honest.

4. Get some help
Though students will often pay top dollar for rent, they can also be a lot of work (think late night parties and calls to the police). Before you have them sign their lease, take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself if you’re up for the challenge. If not, consider getting some help by hiring a local property manager. Though they may charge as much as 10 percent of the rent, property managers can be worth their weight in gold, especially for those landlords who live out of town.

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