Hanging Christmas lights is a holiday tradition for most people. But if your renters want to hang their own Christmas lights on your Scottsdale rental house, should you let them? It’s a sensible question and one that you should take into account conscientiously before saying yes. With all of the things that can go wrong, there are valid reasons why you should discourage your tenants from hanging their own Christmas lights on the roof or high in the trees. Though that doesn’t denote that your tenants will need to forgo this part of the festivities altogether. There are other ways to help your tenants decorate their homes while protecting their safety.
Quite possibly the compelling reason to strongly encourage your tenants not to hang Christmas lights on their own is the significant risk of injury that happens while 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 aspect 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. Then also, there is a very definite danger of electrical shock or overloading the existing breakers. Even though the case of your property’s roof isn’t a factor, you could still find yourself trapped in a very expensive and stressful legal battle.
Another 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 unpleasant holes in walls, both interior, and exterior.
Though small, holes created in exterior surfaces could interest insects or water into the walls of the home, inducing extensive damage and producing a very expensive repair case. Allowing that there are some ways to decorate a home without causing damage to walls or exterior surfaces, there’s no way to see whether your tenant will use these strategies. Because they are renters, not owners, they may not take as many precautions to actually avoid damage as you would like.
Despite that ensuring your tenant’s safety and your rental property are both salient concerns, it may be really prudent to give your tenant another way to take pleasure in seeing Christmas lights on their home without all the liability and risk of damage. One easy way would be to offer to hire a professional to hang Christmas lights on the home for your tenant. Professionals oftentimes carry their own liability insurance and can work on the job a whole lot quicker and easier than your tenant could.
Also, professional light installers usually return after the holidays to remove the Christmas lights from the home, thereby ensuring that the lights get taken down in a timely manner. Even supposing the plan of paying someone to hang Christmas lights on your rental house may not be your first option, it may be well worth the price.
As well as making certain of safety and protecting your property, you can accomplish a lot of goodwill with your tenant by letting them really enjoy their holidays a bit more, which can develop other aspects of the landlord-tenant relationship.
Whether it’s hanging Christmas lights or working on 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 East Valley do it for you? Our property management professionals have the resources and expertise you need to count on that your investment and your tenant are both safe and sound this holiday season. Would you like to learn more? Call us at 480-658-0869 or contact us online today!