During the storm we experienced last week we had several tenants inform us that trees had fallen in their yard. In one case, a neighbor called to tell us that a tree in "our" yard fell onto her car. In almost all of these scenarios the person whose property is damaged wants the tree's owner to pay for the damages. Outside of negligence, however, the tree's owner is not responsible for the damages to the neighbor's property.
The rule can be summed up as follows: It's your property, so take care of it, unless you can prove your neighbor was negligent. If a dead limb of your neighbor's tree is overhanging your property line, it is your responsibility to take care of the issue (without causing unnecessary damage to the tree, of course).
If your neighbor wants you to pay for damages, it isn't simply sufficient to say that the tree was unsafe. They would have to prove that you knew or should have known that the tree was unsafe. Some cases have determined that the tree owner wasn't liable because the neighbor didn't maintain the portion of the tree that was overhanging the neighbor's property.
When one of Alarca's tenants calls us to tell us the neighbors' tree fell into our tenant's yard, we send someone out as soon as possible to examine and take photos of the fallen tree and the damage. We also send a tree-service out to remove the portion of the fallen tree that is on our tenant's property. If warranted, we'll contact the landlord's insurance company. The premise is simple - we want to take care of our residents. We can deal with who pays for the damage after the problem has been resolved.
Property owners can best protect themselves by ensuring that their trees are examined periodically to ensure they are not obviously dead or decaying. Any dead branches or trees should be removed by a professional tree service. Alarca encourages our tenants to report dead trees or any other unsafe condition to ensure that our residents are kept safe and our clients are protected against unnecessary liability claims.
Charlotte Property Manager
Charlotte's Income Property Experts
Monday, January 21, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
New NC Rental Laws for 2013
All of us at Alarca hope that you and your families had a
wonderful holiday season and wish you the best for 2013. Our team is looking
forward to a great year and will be implementing a number of initiatives to
provide our clients with more value-added services and communications.
There are a few new ordinances and laws that took effect on
January 1 and although I won’t address all of them here, I want to discuss a
couple that will impact many landlords.
Charlotte
Rental Property Registration Ordinance – This ordinance took effect
on Jan 1 and requires all owners of rental properties in Charlotte to register
their properties with the City. There is no immediate cost and the registration
is available online at this link: https://rentalregistration.charlottenc.gov/ .
The
City has stated they will give owners a six month grace period to complete the
registration. More information can be found at this link: http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/CMPD/resources/Ordinances/Pages/RentalOrdinance.aspx
Tamper
Resistant Smoke Detectors - When installing a new smoke alarm
or replacing an existing smoke alarm, a landlord must install a
tamper-resistant, 10-year lithium battery smoke alarm. Compliance with
the new law is not be required if: (i) the dwelling is equipped with a
hardwired smoke alarm with a battery backup, or (ii) the dwelling unit is
equipped with a smoke alarm combined with a carbon monoxide alarm that meets
existing requirements for carbon monoxide alarms. Also, this legislation
does NOT require a landlord to replace existing smoke alarms that are in good
working order or which simply need new batteries. Tenants will NOT be required
to replace batteries in the new 10-year lithium battery equipped alarms. The
cost for these alarms is about $25 each (compared to roughly $10 for the type
we used to install).
Here's to a great 2013!
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