Staying Above the Fray of Tenant Conflicts
FOR REALTORS/LANDLORDS: September 2022 Substack Exclusive
By Juliana Torres-Mason, Go4Rent Guest Writer
Even the most peaceful of neighborhoods can fall prey to escalating conflict between residents. Maybe one resident plays loud music and hosts too many late-night parties, keeping their neighbors up as rowdy guests spill into the yard and onto the street. Other neighbors allow their dog to relieve itself in whatever yard it prefers. Or, perhaps their pet is too aggressive and terrorizes the neighborhood kids.
Some neighbors aren’t aware of property lines when they’re leaving their trash out on pickup day. Then others park in front of driveways that aren’t their own. The list of complaints is endless.
However, in the face of rising tenant tensions, the landlord’s role is limited.
“You don’t want to micromanage the affairs of the tenants,” said Evan Rosenberg, a real estate attorney with the Florida-based law firm Ritter Chusid. “I advise my landlord clients not to get involved in that unless it extends to one or more tenants breaching the lease.”
Here’s why.
The Role of the Landlord
Let’s say roommates or tenants are listed under the same lease, then get into a dispute involving how much rent each should pay or some other obligation outlined in the lease. According to Rosenberg, this is an example in which the landlord may have to intervene.
“The landlord has to have a real talk with them and say ‘Look, I don’t know what’s going on between you [two]’,” Rosenberg said. “‘But if you’re not going to pay, then you’re going to be subject to eviction and damages, depending on the nature of the breech of the lease.’”
But it’s not the landlord’s role to mitigate between the parties or weigh who’s right or wrong.
“It’s going to come down to what the lease says,” Rosenberg said.
However, once landlords start playing referee in tenant relationships outside of rent and repairs, they are stepping beyond their assigned role as landlord and getting more invested than they should be on a legal basis.
“You don’t want to take on more than you’re contractually obligated to do,” Rosenberg explained.
A landlord is required to make sure the rent is received on time, and provide repairs and maintenance to the property as needed. Landlords are fulfilling their role if they keep the property habitable and up to the standards of living when the tenants first moved in.
The landlord does have a place in a dispute between tenants or neighbors if the state of the property itself is involved though.
Juan Mackrizz, who manages approximately 100 properties with Texas First Property & Management, said that there have been tenant disputes where he’s gotten involved. But his involvement was limited to repairing an aspect of the property that created or escalated the dispute.
“If it’s anything related to my property, I try to remedy it as soon as possible so the issue is terminated,” he said.
Recently, one of Mackrizz’s tenants reported a neighborhood dog who broke the fence between their backyards. The aggressive animal was in the tenant’s backyard and tried to bite the tenant’s daughter.
He worked to get the fence repaired quickly but recognized that he couldn’t address the immediate danger at that moment: the dog. Only the police or Animal Control could handle that. He advised the tenants to call the police immediately.
Dealing With Disputes Involving an HOA
For Mackrizz, some conflicts between his tenants and their neighbors come to his attention after the homeowners association (HOA) receives a complaint.
(Note: HOAs and condominium owner associations, or COAs, are often lumped together. However, the latter group owns their own unit in a building of multi-units and pays for a shared communal space. Homeowners in subdivisions own the entirety of their individual property, including their basements, hallways, yards, etc. Mackrizz works with HOAs, not COAs.)
For both board groups though, association boards primarily communicate with association members (i.e. property owners). If there is an issue, they’ll write a letter to him to address issues with a tenant.
Beyond relaying the message from the HOA board and asking the tenant to comply with the community’s rules, Mackrizz said his role is still limited.
A dispute that involves the HOA directly can be tricky. Rosenberg said he has represented residents who have sued their own associations. In the event that tenant conflict comes to a head, the landlord is usually the first point of contact for both the tenant and the HOA. It falls to them to communicate to the tenants that they not are not following community rules and to demand corrective action.
That is, unless the HOA already has a grievance committee for individual homeowners (and tenants) to take their complaints to. According to Rosenberg, who encourages this type of committee, landlords may find such a body helpful if their tenant is bumping heads with the association for one reason or another. Often, a neutral third party is what is needed to allow all parties to reach an understanding.
Fortunately for landlords, associations may have measures in place to help resolve a potential conflict before it escalates to legal action and complicates the landlord’s relationship with the association.
“Before you even file a lawsuit with the association, there may be a requirement that parties go to mediation,” Rosenberg said.
Many associations have the mediation requirement built right into their bylaws. A neutral mediator can listen to both sides and help parties reach a cooperative settlement without involving the courts. The measure saves the losing party from the high costs of a lengthy court battle — costs that may get passed on to all the property owners in the community through a special assessment if it’s the association that loses.
When Tenant Complaint Molehills Become Mountains
Tenant complaints may vary. It may be a gripe as small as putting a trash bag in front of the neighbor’s home for pickup or as big as blocking a neighbor from parking on personal property.
“Let’s say that my tenant is blocking the next-door neighbor’s garage door,” Mackrizz explained. “Even though this person is not obeying the law, the other neighbor has to call the police. I cannot remove the tenant’s car.”
In another instance, his tenant had a pet that the HOA board didn’t allow. Neighbors complained that the animal was bringing fleas and flies to their own properties. His tenant was at fault, and the animal had to be removed.
In the first example, Mackrizz has no ownership over the neighbor’s garage. In the latter example, the conflict was happening on his property so he could weigh in.
Additionally, if it’s one of his own tenants complaining about a neighbor who is an association member, Mackrizz said he usually advises his tenants to call the HOA board first. However, depending on the bylaws and Rules and Regulations, HOA boards may or may not allow direct communication from tenants.
“If they cannot solve the problem, then call the police,” Mackrizz said, regarding offenses that are against city laws.
While the police may take some complaints more seriously than others, it’s often easy to recognize when it’s a personality clash versus a legitimate housing problem.
“Those are things that they have to solve between themselves,” Mackrizz said. “If they just don’t like each other, I don’t intervene. It’s between the two people.”
Legal Dangers Of Overly Involved Landlords
There also is a legal danger of getting involved in disputes between tenants or neighbors, Rosenberg explained. The landlord doesn’t want to become a witness or party in a civil conflict.
“It’s an unnecessary burden that I wouldn’t put on any landlord — especially if you’re managing multiple properties,” Rosenberg said. “You don’t want to be dealing with the comings and goings of each individual tenant.”
Rosenberg agreed that if the dispute involves a deficiency with the property, the landlord is obligated to make the repairs as the lease requires it.
“Being a landlord is a thankless job to begin with,” he said, adding that landlords have enough complications when it comes to property upkeep, and dealing with rent payments and potential tenant complaints about the property itself. “You don’t want to take on more than you’re contractually obligated to do.”
The Risk of Losing Tenants
If good tenants are feuding with their neighbors, landlords might feel like they have to intervene and solve the issue to keep reliable tenants from moving away rather than renewing their lease.
However, Rosenberg still argued that it wasn’t worth the risk of legal complications. Especially in the current market, with the demand for rental homes so high, the chance of losing tenants because of a personal dispute is even smaller than usual.
“They have to abide by their lease,” Rosenberg reminded. “They can’t terminate the lease because the parties don’t get along. They’re going to be responsible for those obligations.”
Even when the demand decreases, Rosenberg still wouldn’t advise landlords to weigh in on all disputes.
“Is there a risk that the tenants don’t renew? Yes,” he said.
But, according to him, landlords who are focused and attentive to the aspects that do fall under their responsibility will make a strong case for their tenants staying.
“It’s equally as hard to find good landlords as it is to find good tenants,” Rosenberg said. “[Even] if you’re a loyal, hard-working landlord that’s responsive to issues, you’re not going to have a lot of problems finding the right tenants.”
How To Keep New Tenants From Being Disruptive
Staying at arm’s length from a neighborhood dispute is one thing. However, landlords may have a larger role when the source of the disruption is one of their own tenants. Mackrizz argued that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
“I screen my prospective tenants [very well],” he said. “I need to know who is going to occupy the property.”
Checking credit scores, employment history, requiring certain levels of education, running background checks and verifying income are all measures that allow Mackrizz to select who he deems as quality tenants, ones that have a pattern of not causing neighborhood disruptions.
“I expect not to have trouble with them,” he said. “Generally, I don’t have that issue.”
However, he did have a circumstance where he wanted to evict a tenant for bad behavior. But that tenant ended up having issues with paying rent, giving the property owner an uncomplicated way to begin the eviction process and get rid of the disruptive tenant.
In the case of HOA boards, they often require new tenants — right along with new homeowners — to sign documents agreeing to the association’s Rules and Regulations. On the off chance that the HOA has no such requirement, it’s a good idea for landlords to require adherence to community rules in the lease itself. When noncompliance to the HOA Rules and Regulations and/or bylaws is defined as a clear violation of the lease, the landlord has more teeth to demand compliance and more legal standing if eviction becomes necessary.
Since HOA governing documents tend to be long and complex, it may be helpful for the landlord to ask the board to provide a short outline of commonly violated rules. Policies for things like parking along closely spaced driveways, lawn upkeep and the use of common gathering areas may not be immediately obvious to new tenants. Landlords also should make sure they keep tenants up to date on new HOA policies, as tenants won’t receive regular communications and enforcement reminders from the HOA.
Additionally, the lease — or a welcome packet given to new tenants — could outline general policies for good behavior in the neighborhood. This could help start tenants off on the right foot when they first move into the neighborhood.
For peacemaking landlords, it may be tempting to get involved in neighborhood conflicts that their tenants get wrapped up in. Legally, though, their obligations are spelled out within the lease (or state laws). Neither includes getting into tenant drama, merited or otherwise. Unless the dispute in question involves the property itself or rent payments, the landlord is arguably well served to remain uninvolved.
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