One typical holiday tradition is to hang Christmas lights. But should you let your renters hang Christmas lights on your Brewer rental house on their own? This question needs to be given deeper thought before saying yes. With all the possible hazards, there are many good reasons for not allowing your tenants to hang their own Christmas lights on the roof. This does not mean your tenants will have to miss out on the festivities. You can still help your tenants decorate their homes while ensuring their safety.
Probably the best reason not to let your tenants hang Christmas lights on their own is the risk of possible injury. From 2007 to 2013, more than 173,000 people in the U.S. were injured by hanging Christmas decorations in their homes. Hanging Christmas lights on a home’s exterior can be a very dangerous activity.
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 may have responsibility for your tenant’s injuries if loose or slippery roof tiles were a factor in that fall. Not to mention the very real danger of electrical shock or overloading your existing breakers. Regardless of the condition of your property’s roof, you could still find yourself in an expensive legal battle.
You also want to avoid any potential damage to your rental property. That is another reason to discourage your tenant from installing Christmas lights on their own. Nails, screws, and other hardware often used to secure strings of lights, garlands, and other Christmas decorations can leave ugly holes in the walls, both interior, and exterior.
Even if these are small, holes on exterior surfaces can be areas for insects or passageways for water to seep into the walls of the home causing damage & costly repairs. There is no certainty that your tenant will apply one of the many ways to decorate a home without causing damage to walls or exterior surfaces. They may mean well, but typically, renters are less cautious about damage than owners are.
As you keep both your tenant’s and your rental property’s safety in mind, you might want to offer your tenant another way to enjoy Christmas lights on their home while keeping liability and damages at bay. One of these alternatives is to get a professional to set up the Christmas lights on the home for your tenant. Because of the liability insurance they carry, professionals are typically more efficient at their job than your tenant would be.
What’s more, these professional light installers often also offer services to take down Christmas lights from the home post-holiday. Knowing all of these, the idea of paying someone to hang Christmas lights on your rental house may not be so bad after all.
You not only keep your tenant & property safe, but you also save them some precious time during the holidays, therefore building goodwill and improving your landlord-tenant relationship.
Be it installing Christmas lights or routine property maintenance, managing a rental property can keep you a bit busier during the holidays. Why not let Real Property Management Acadia do it for you? Our property management professionals have the resources and expertise you need to feel confident that your investment and your tenant are both safe and sound this holiday season. Would you like to learn more? Call us at 207-561-7482 or contact us online today!
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
