I’m going to consult a lawyer if necessary, but I wanted to get as many opinions as possible. I thought maybe people on here would have experience with this situation, although I assume it varies state by state.
My insurance agent has informed me that all of her carriers have recently dropped ALL animal liability coverage. Not just for certain dog breeds, for everything. I’m trying to learn more about the animal liability laws in this state, but I’m assuming at this point that if someone gets bitten by a tenant’s dog or trips over the tenant’s cat and injures themself, I could be on the hook in a lawsuit now with no insurance coverage to back me up. Apparently this is a new trend for insurance carriers to drop animal liability.
This is rather discouraging because even if you hold the property in an entity (which I’m not currently doing), it still doesn’t help that much because insurance would be the first line of defense in this situation. And from what I’ve heard, requiring the tenant to get renter’s insurance with animal liability is not a foolproof solution, because the victim can just sue the LL separately if they choose to.
I could try to prohibit all pets, but that could severely restrict my choice of applicants. And I’m not sure what the consequences are if the tenant ignores the rule and brings a pet in anyway and it injures someone. I need to find out if I’m liable if I never knew the pet was there in the first place.
Liability isn’t automatic. The plaintiff has to prove you knew the animal was dangerous and did nothing to prevent it. You could allow pets and require the tenant to remove the animal if it bites someone. Just make sure you follow through because you could be responsible for the 2nd bite.
Thanks BLL. I’ve been doing some research and Florida has “strict liability” on dogbite. There doesn’t have to be any previous bite history with the dog for liability, unfortunately. It’s still unclear to me what the landlord’s liability is here though if the tenant owns the dog.
HoldandBuy,
Why not just restrict those dangerous biting breeds, the ones that cause the most dog bites. This will way lessen your risk.
Sheepdogs, labradors, golden retrievers and little terriers don’t bite nearly as much. And when they do, it’s usually minor–ripped pants, a little puncture wound.
My insurance carrier just dropped coverage for hail and wind! I view that as a much bigger potential risk of loss. My houses are gonna have to burn to the ground in order to get covered.
We rent to owners of numerous dogs. But I won’t rent to a Pit Bull, Rottweiler, etc. because their bite is much more dangerous. I’m just trying to say that in the big picture this may not be a big deal.
Furnished–I am definitely restricting those breeds. My concern is that they could sneak those breeds in in the future without my knowledge
and I could be held liable if something happens. I’m also concerned that a third party could trip over (any) dog or cat and get seriously injured.
There is something in the lease I bought: “tenant assumes all liability for any injuries caused by pet…” The good thing is that I learned
that the lawyers tend to go after the dog owner in these cases, unless there’s some evidence that the landlord knew there was already a dangerous situation
and did nothing about it.