A storm caused parts of the carport to collapse.
Question
I own a 10-unit building, with each unit being assigned a carport parking space. A month ago a storm caused collapse of portions of the carport structure, seriously damaging cars in two spaces. The owners are claiming that I am responsible for repairs to their damaged vehicles. Am I?
Answers
There are several issues relevant to the problem. Although I will provide some brief discussion regarding the issues, the statutes and court decisions of states can be significantly different regarding some or all of the issues. Accordingly, if the affected tenants push the matter, you should consult competent counsel. If the tenants engage an attorney or attorneys you should yourself hire one. You should almost certainly not represent yourself in court on such a case when a tenant is represented by an attorney.
In many states, such an event will be considered an “act of God” and the landlord would have no liability for damages suffered by the tenant. As for the loss of or damage to a tenant’s personal property if there is a burglary, fire, or leaking roof in his lease unit, it is up to the tenant to obtain a renter insurance policy that covers his losses. However, there can be circumstances which will result in landlord liability. For example, if there were defects in construction or maintenance of the carports of which the landlord knew about (e.g., one or more tenants have complained about it) or of which he/she should have known about (i.e., anyone of normal intelligence and experience could see the carport was in danger of collapse).
You should do one or two things. First, you should speak with your insurance agent to determine whether or not your landlord policy provides coverage of tenant vehicles parked in the carport. If, by chance it does, you would likely be ahead by taking advantage of the insurance compared to having disgruntled tenants, resulting in extra vacancies upon expirations of their leases.
If not covered by your insurance and the tenants’ damages are not so extensive that it is obviously going to cost a lot to repair, you should consider voluntarily covering the damages rather than facing the potential costs resulting from disgruntled tenants – e.g., the costs of vacancies.
Second, if the tenants’ damages are not covered by your insurance policy and are so extensive that you do not want to consider voluntary compensation, you should consult a competent attorney who is experienced in such an issue and find out exactly what the statutes of your state say and whether or not he is confident he can successfully defend you or negotiate a reasonable settlement. You also need an estimate of legal costs of defending a possible lawsuit (with the chance of losing) compared to the cost of you (without an attorney) negotiating a settlement with the tenants that might be cheaper than litigation and result in less vacancy.