Tenents And Guns
I've been a landlord for about 4 years. My wife asked me something tonight that I have never thought about nor read or heard anything about.
Does a tenent have to disclose the ownership of a gun? Could it be a clause in the lease that no fire arms are allowed? Would they legally need to disclose otherwise?
Thankfully this has never been a concern of mine but it got my wheels turning.... I might just add this to my lease for good measure.
Any thought or experiences?
Funny you mention. I had a tenant who was not paying me rent invite me into the house and pull a gun on me at the kitchen table. I know of someone who
had his tenant shoot and kill him over a
rent issue. I no longer play landlord.
What I do is say I am the ABC property management company and tell my tenants I am the property manager.
In terms of disclosing, it varies state to state. Check with the Department of Real-Estate in your area.
Best Riches,
Jeff Adam
[addsig]
Hey,
You can put any thing in your rental contract you want...until it goes to court.
So you can add a clause that says Tenants must vote Republican (I am not trying to start a political debate!).
Or, that tenants can only buy Ford pickup trucks.
Or, underwear must be warn on the outside.
And they are all great, until you get sued.
But, what would be the purpose of adding a "no guns allowed" clause or "gun notification" clause?
You add the No guns Clause and two years later someone breaks in the house and injures the Tenant. The Tenant swears up and down, they would have bought a gun, if it had not been for the "evil landlord". They hire an attorney and discover your Anti-Gun clause violated the Tenants rights.
Or...
You put in the Gun Notification clause. The tenant calls you up and says they bought a gun. You make a note of it. Six months later, the Tenant gets drunk and shoots a neighbor. During the trial, the fact you knew about the gun comes to light. Now the Neighbor sues you because you KNEW about a dangerous situation and did nothing about it.
Bottom line: how would either of these clauses HELP YOU????
Jeffery...Oh my god! Did you ever get the rent? Did you get the tenents out?
Bruce...you raise some very good points. I'm probably better off not knowing. It is too bad that I could be in legal trouble by trying to stay on top of the situation.
The more I think about it, the more I would have to rely on pre-screening the tenent and my 'gut feel' for the type of person they are. Of course there would be no discrimination but I might not look so fondly on a criminal record or possesion charges.
Remember Barney Zick's story about the apt. house he owned where he didn't dare go without a gun...said even with a big magnum pistol he barely felt safe.
He called it little Beirut then, today it's probably be little Bagdad or Tikrit, but same idea.
Here is the reality, if they are going to pull a gun on you then they aren't going to disclose to you that they have one...
I think it is a non issue, people have the right to bear arms in this country and people will lie about whether they have any or not.
When my friends move to NYC they take their guns (handguns, shotguns, rifles, and AK47's with them) I doubt they disclose
On a different note.
I recently had a meeting with a large Investor/Landlord, who told me that he had hired a police officer who collected the rents for him.
,,,in his off-duty time ofcourse...
It's all about solutions, isn't it?
[addsig]
This is just my 2 cents but, if any one who is a landlord dosen't feel safe with your current tenants, then I would guess you are renting to the wrong person.
You know, I'm no attorney but from what I understand about Constitutional Rights, it doesn't matter if you put "no guns" or "gun notificatin" in your contract or not. According to United States law every citizen has the right to own a gun, renting or not. Basically, if I were the tenant and I saw that in the contract I'd tell you to stick your contract where the sun ain't goin' to shine and find another place to live. But hey, that's me and you got to remember, I'm from Texas so guns are kind of engrained into my DNA.
Just my two cents.
PS. If you don't feel safe around your tenents you could always ask your mother-in-law to go collect the rent.
Hawthorn, that's a great idea.
Stockpro99, I agree 100%
I also agree that you create massive liability issues by putting clauses like that in your contracts.
I would definitly have a clause in your contract that states that if a tenant is envolved in any illegal activity or threatens or assaults another tenant (be it with a gun, knife, fist, words, threats, etc) that it is cause for immediate eviction. If a tenant ever threatens you, turn around and begin the eviction proceedure immediatly, and let the lawyers do the talking.
We live in a country that has the right to bear arms. If I lived in an area that was shady, I'd be sure to own a shotgun as well. I'd be ticked if my landlord tried to tell me that I couldn't own it. I'd ask him if he was going to require me to be catholic, homosexual, worship on saturdays, or anything else while he was at it, and then kindly refer him to my local ACLU office (but not with the shotgun ).
Bottom line is that Guns are not the problem, people are the problem. If I had great tenants, I'd want every one to pack a concealed weapon 24/7. No body would mess with my property.
The govt can not keep guns from criminals what makes you think a stupid clause is going to keep them from your tenants. I like the idea that i am just an employee but employees get shot too.
Good LUCK and Thank You
Hope this helps some
Ted Jr
In the 1st Amendment to the Constitution a citizen has the right to bear arms. But there are exceptions in the case of a person who has a felony conviction. If they live in a house where a gun is kept they can be sent back to prison. As several others have stated a clause not allowing guns is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
It's the second amendment.. The first is freedom of speach, religion, and othe such pursuits.