THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407070392
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: LANDLORDS & TENANTS
SOURCE: William Mazel and Albert Teich Jr.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Q. I live in an upstairs apartment in a four-family apartment building. Recently, a tenant in the apartment right downstairs from mine fell asleep while smoking in bed. She was not hurt seriously because the smoke alarm awakened her, but there was a lot of smoke and much of it came into my apartment. All of my clothing needs to be professionally dry-cleaned and the bill will exceed $475.
I own my own furniture, and it was heavily damaged by the smoke. I don't know how much it will cost to clean, if it can be cleaned. I asked my landlord to notify his fire insurance company about my loss, but he said that he is not liable for the damage and neither is his insurance company. He says he is covered for his damage but not his tenants'. He also said that since he was not negligent in causing the fire, his liability insurance company is not liable. I thought the landlord was responsible for the negligent acts of his tenants.
Am I going to have to bear my entire loss caused by someone else's negligence?
A. We have often tried to stress to tenants that their landlords are not liable for any injuries inflicted upon the tenants unless the landlord is in some way negligent. In this case, the landlord having provided a working smoke alarm detector, apparently did all he was required to do and, therefore, was not negligent. If he is not negligent, he is not liable to you. As a general rule, landlords to not carry fire insurance for the protection of the tenants.
The insurance the landlord carries is only the insurance needed to reimburse the landlord for the landlord's out-of-pocket expenses.
You do have a right to sue the tenant who was smoking in bed and caused the damage to your property. Just as you do not have insurance to protect your losses as a result of this fire, we imagine the downstairs tenant does not have fire insurance or liability insurance either to protect her against a suit by you or recover your losses.
If you decide to sue the downstairs tenant even though she does not have insurance, she might have some savings, investments, a car or a job, all of which would be subject to your judgment if you were to obtain a judgment against her for your damage.
Nothing is really cheap today, but it is certainly a lot cheaper to buy insurance to protect your own personal property and to protect yourself against claims of other people in the event you might happen to be negligent than to have to try to pay those losses out of your own pocket. by CNB