Broken glass - who pays; tenant or landlord?

If tenants are mowing the yard, and the mower throws a stone which breaks a glass sliding door, who pays for the glass replacement - tenant, or landlord?

Yes, the landlord is insured, and yes it was an accident, but the tenant did the damage.

 

Tough one. I believe there's some cases that have gone both ways actually, but I'm not sure of the specific facts in each case.

On general principles, its hard to see how the tenant was doing anything that they shouldn't have - so no negligence - so no liability for damage - falls back on landlord for the repair.

 

I guess I should caveat the above with certain things - like for example if it was a defective mower that the tenant had knowledge of it flicking rocks up before - or using it too close to the gravel bed in the yard, etc etc.

But yeah, there needs to be that element of negligence on behalf of the tenant.

 

Not sure how I'd prove, or they'd disprove, that.

 

As a landlord, yes it would be hard if the tenant said otherwise.

Silver lining is that if it happened again - then you have a much stronger case for negligence!

 

Tough/frustrating one.
When mowing my lawn and see something big enough that would cause damage to property or my mower blades, let alone cars/pedestrians passing by, I stop and pick it up.
Only way I wouldn't see it is if the grass was too long.

 

Yes it was an accident, and this could go either way, but I would be negotiating hard for the tenant to replace. I have had this before and the tenant worn the cost of the replacement window. After all it wasn't the owner mowing the lawn.

 

Legally landlord, if tenant wasn't doing anything wrong. Especially if its a one off.

I think a good tenant would offer to partly / fully help though.

 

Wouldn't you get them to just pay the excess on your claim?

Otherwise they could be up for a lot with a glass door. And it was an accident.

 

Insurance doesn't change who is legally liable - it just stands in your shoes as the party insured.

The insurance company could then turn around and try and chase the tenant for the money potentially - or even worse, ask for their money back from you once they figure out you cut a deal with the tenant for the excess amount (which is almost certainly in breach of your insurance terms and conditions).

 

So a tenant offering to contribute could get the landlord in trouble, potentially?

 

Not really "in trouble" - more that it could end up voiding your insurance.

Part of the deal when an insurance company pays you out is that they adopt your legal rights to possibly claim money from third parties on your behalf.

They don't like it when you have already cut a deal that stops them being able to do that.

 

I would think about it this way;if I was renting and broke a window I would fix it back to how it was before I broke it,but in the case of a break in the landlord would pay for it