Hanging Christmas lights is a holiday tradition for most people. But if your renters want to hang their own Christmas lights on your Rexburg rental house, should you let them? It’s an appropriate question and one that you should take into consideration meticulously before saying yes. Presented with all of the things that can go wrong, there are sound arguments and reasons why you should discourage your tenants from hanging their own Christmas lights on the roof or high in the trees. Although that doesn’t mean your tenants will need to forgo this part of the festivities entirely. There are other ways to help your tenants decorate their homes while making sure of their safety.
Most likely the major reason to urge your tenants not to hang Christmas lights on their own is the significant risk of injury that sometimes happens with doing so. From 2007 to 2013, more than 173,000 people in the U.S. were injured by hanging Christmas decorations in their homes. The most unsafe part of hanging Christmas lights is the process of hanging them up on a home’s exterior.
Every holiday season, an estimated 13,000 people injure themselves by falling off the roof or getting shocked by Christmas lights. As a landlord, you could be held responsible for your tenant’s injuries if loose or slippery roof tiles contributed to that fall. Other than that, there is a very serious danger of electrical shock or overloading the existing breakers. Though the condition of your property’s roof isn’t a factor, you could still find yourself tied up in an excessive legal battle anyhow.
One other very good reason to discourage your tenant from hanging their own Christmas lights is the potential damage it could do to your rental property. Nails, screws, and other hardware often used to secure strings of lights, garlands, and other Christmas decorations can leave terrible holes in walls, both interior, and exterior.
Conceding that they’re small, holes created in exterior surfaces could attract insects or water into the walls of the home, provoking extensive damage and creating very expensive repair case. Although there are several ways to decorate a home without causing damage to walls or exterior surfaces, there’s no way to discover whether your tenant will use these means. Because they are renters, not owners, they may not take as many precautions to prevent damage as you would like.
Despite the fact that maintaining your tenant’s safety and your rental property are both essential, it may be actually prudent to grant your tenant another way to take pleasure in Christmas lights on their home without all the liability and risk of damage. One easy way would be to suggest to hire a professional to hang Christmas lights on the home for your tenant. Professionals repeatedly carry their own liability insurance and can definitely do this undertaking briskly and more safely than your tenant could.
More than that, professional light installers usually return after the holidays to remove the Christmas lights from the home, in this way ensuring that the lights get taken down in a timely manner. Granting that the concept of paying someone to hang Christmas lights on your rental house may not be your first choice, it may be well worth the price.
Other than boosting safety and protecting your property, you can work out a lot of goodwill with your tenant by fostering their chance to enjoy and relish in their holidays a bit more, which can truly enhance other aspects of the landlord-tenant relationship.
Whether it’s hanging Christmas lights or servicing routine property maintenance, managing a rental property can take time away from your own enjoyment of the holiday season. Why not let Real Property Management Southeast Idaho do it for you? Our property management professionals have the resources and expertise you need to expect that your investment and your tenant are both safe and sound this holiday season. Would you like to learn more? Call us at 208-522-2400 or contact us online today!
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