THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510190292
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Landlords & Tenants
SOURCE: BY WILLIAM MAZEL, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
I have a very nice tenant who will do things in order to keep her apartment in a comfortable condition. Last winter seemed to be very cold for her and she recently asked if I would install a storm door at the front door in order to keep the draft from coming into the apartment.
I knew that I was not required to do it but I agreed to do it. I went down to a local store, bought a storm door which I thought would fit the door opening in the apartment and contracted with an independent contractor to install it. I told him that any heading that had to be done should be done at the top part of the doorway and not at the bottom.
The contractor picked up the door, took it to the apartment, saw that it was about four inches too short and placed a four-inch ledge at the bottom of the door sill. Of course, that was entirely too high. The contractor suggested that I take the door back and exchange it.
I picked up the door. When I arrived at the building supply store, they were closed and I could not exchange it at that time. In the meantime, my tenant came home, did not realize that there was a four inch addition to the sill, tripped, fell, and hurt herself. My question is, am I responsible for her injuries?
First of all, I certainly hope you have liability insurance on the property, and, if you do, notify your insurance company at once. Secondly, you contracted with an independent contractor and the general rule is that a person who hires an independent contractor to perform work will not be liable for injuries caused by the negligence of the independent contractor.
Here, you hired an independent contractor, the contractor was negligent, your tenant was injured, and I believe the only recourse your tenant will have in the case, since you were not negligent, is to sue the independent contractor for your injuries.
In a similar case several years ago, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that in the absence of a specific agreement to do so, a landlord has no duty to maintain any part of the premises under the tenant's control. It is also said that a landlord is not an insurer of the tenant's safety.
The only way the tenant would be able to recover from the landlord is to prove that the landlord did not use reasonable care in causing the work to be done. Your situation does not indicate that you did not use reasonable care.
I have been living in my apartment for the last two years, and I would like to do some re-decorating, basically painting, wallpapering, and putting in some new wall light fixtures. I approached my landlord and gave him a proposition that I would do all of the labor to fix up the apartment if he would just simply provide the material.
His answer was no. He stated that he had no duty to pay for it, and he was not going to agree to it. My wife and I know that if we do this then when we move in a year or two, the apartment will be more valuable than it was when we moved in to it.
Isn't there any way that was can go ahead and fix it up, make it a much nicer apartment and still collect for the cost of the material which now becomes the property of the landlord?
The answer is no. The law in Virginia is very clear in stating that a tenant has no right to make improvements to the rented premises and charge the landlord for the cost of the improvements.
In fact, a tenant, when making improvements, had better be sure that the ``improvements'' do not clash with the landlord's personal tastes. For instance, of you should paint the walls a light blue and the landlord cannot stand blue, he could claim that you did not have the right to paint, and therefore, you should restore the color of the walls to the color they were when you moved in.
It may be that the landlord does not like the pattern of the wallpaper. Upon your moving, the landlord could require you to remove the wallpaper and restore the walls to the finish when you first moved in. If the landlord does not like the light fixtures, he can demand that you return them to the same condition they were in when you moved in.
In other words, you cannot make the landlord pay for the improvements that you want. The best advice I can give you is to go back to the landlord and tell him what you want, show him the color of the paint, the pattern on the wallpaper, and the fixtures you want to place on the walls and ask if you have his permission to do the improvements.
Let him know that you are not going to try and collect for the work. If the landlord says yes, you may make the improvements. If the landlord says no, you are at your own risk, and the landlord may try to claim against you at a later date. MEMO: William Mazel is a retired lawyer. Send comments and questions to him at
Real Estate Weekly, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510. by CNB