Should I be concerned with liability if a tenant’s dog bites someone?

A landlord does have valid concerns about dog bite liability. For some landlords, the liability concern can be a determining factor in a decision to allow pets on the rental property.

A dog bite victim’s medical costs are usually reimbursed through the dog owner’s homeowner insurance policy. When the dog owner is a renter and does not have adequate renter insurance coverage, the dog bite victim may choose to include the landlord as a defendant in a personal injury lawsuit. A landlord is perceived as having more assets and better insurance coverages than the typical tenant dog owner.

Generally, landlords are not automatically held liable for dog bites. However, landlords have a duty of care to take reasonable measures to ensure their tenants’ safety and security on the rental property. An incident of a dog bite injury requires investigation of the facts to determine whether the landlord performed to his duties and responsibilities for tenant safety.

Landlords can be held liable when their actions or their failure to act increases the risk for injury or damage from an aggressive or dangerous dog attack. A landlord could be held liable if the landlord had actual knowledge that the dog was dangerous or should have known that the dog was a threat to others. If the landlord did not have legal authority to remove the dog from the rental premises, the landlord must take appropriate actions for warnings of danger, as for example, by posting Beware of Dog signs on the rental premises.

For pet friendly rentals, the tenant should be required to acknowledge in a signed pet addendum that if the dog displays vicious, aggressive behavior towards others that constitutes a threat, or becomes a nuisance, the tenant must remove the dog from the rental premises. If the tenant failed to remedy the situation, the tenant breached the lease and is subject to legal action as detailed in the lease terms and conditions. If the landlord’s failure to enforce his lease terms and conditions for landlord removal of the dangerous dog, the landlord is negligent and could be held liable for any injury and damages.

If the landlord fails to maintain the rental premises to a safe condition which allows the tenant’s dog to escape the rental unit or rental property, and the dog bites someone, a landlord could be held liable for negligence if the landlord knew or should have known about a property defect or item needed repair. The landlord’s failure to maintain the property incurs liability for the injury even if the injury did not take place on property owned by the landlord.

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