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Should You Let Your Richardson Renters Hang Their Own Christmas Lights?

Richardson Tenant Falling While Hanging Christmas Lights

Hanging Christmas lights is a holiday tradition for a lot of people. But if your renters want to hang their own Christmas lights on your Richardson rental house, should you let them? It’s a reasonable question and one that you should look into thoroughly before saying yes. Bearing in mind all of the things that can go wrong, there are persuasive arguments why you must discourage your tenants from hanging their own Christmas lights on the roof or high in the trees. But at the same time, that doesn’t actually mean your tenants will need to forgo this part of the festivities totally. There are other ways to help your tenants decorate their homes while assuring their protection.

Perhaps the strongest reason to motivate your tenants not to hang Christmas lights on their own is the significant risk of injury that accompanies 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 harmful 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. And then, there is the very undeniable danger of electrical shock or overloading the existing breakers. In spite of the fact the status of your property’s roof isn’t a component, you could inadvertently find yourself caught up in an expensive legal battle, though.

Another solid 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 are often used to secure strings of lights, garlands, and other Christmas decorations can leave unattractive holes in walls, both interior, and exterior.

Even if it’s tiny, holes created in exterior surfaces could draw insects or water into the walls of the home, which leads to extensive damage and building up into a very expensive repair case. Even supposing there are various ways to decorate a home without causing damage to walls or exterior surfaces, there’s no way to ascertain whether your tenant will use these measures. Because they are renters, not owners, they may not take as many precautions to elude damage as you would like.

Even though securing your tenant’s safety and your rental property are both necessary, it may be prudent and watchful to present your tenant another way to be happy with Christmas lights on their home without all the liability and risk of damage. One great course of action would be to just offer to hire a professional to hang Christmas lights on the home for your tenant. Professionals often carry their own liability insurance and can carry out the chore more swiftly and trouble-free than your tenant could.

Furthermore, professional light installers usually return after the holidays to remove the Christmas lights from the home, consequently ensuring that the lights get taken down in a timely manner. Despite that the thought of paying someone to hang Christmas lights on your rental house may not be your top choice, it may be well worth the price.

Apart from ensuring the safety and protecting your property, you can bring on a lot of goodwill with your tenant by allowing them to delight in their holidays a bit more, which can boost other aspects of the landlord-tenant relationship.

Whether it’s hanging Christmas lights or doing 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 One Source do it for you? Our property management professionals have the resources and expertise you need to see to it that your investment and your tenant are both safe and sound this holiday season. Would you like to learn more? Call us at 214-960-1612 or contact us online today!

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