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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Posts
    147

    Default Children Playing in the Driveway and Surrounding Area

    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: CA

    I am the manager of a 10 unit apartment building. About 1 year ago we move in a tenant with kid(s). Nothing special since we have many tenants that have kids. And it was brought to my attention that this kids were playing in the driveway and in the parking area. So we issue notices to all tenancy saying that the new house rules were that kids cannot play on the driveways around parked cars in the hallways est. We issued this to everybody in the building an to another building I manage.

    Nothing happen for about a year. But then we were getting complaints from other tenants (those who don't have children) saying kids were playing round their cars. Were concern that car were getting damage. It was to the point that car alarms were being set off when the kids were playing around the cars. So I issued a reminder of the rules not playing in the driveway est talk to the parents of the kids. There were various degree of resistance from the parents about these rules. I said that it was a safety concern (not a good idea to play in the driveway) and that management will be enforcing these rules. Since then we took special attention to do what we can to enforce these rules. If kids were there when me or my staff is there we tell them and their parents to stop paying there. But I suspect that when we are not there they continue to play there. Recently one of our best tenants reported damages to his car we believe it is from the kids playing. So I issued another notice informing them of the rules again and of damage to the car. The kids stop playing for a few weeks but I got complaints again.

    My questions are:
    1. Are these rules legally enforceable. I believe they are since they were properly notice and they were issued to all and apply to all equally.
    2. How will I go about enforcing it? I don't think sending notice reminding them of the rules working. The parents know of the rules at this point. They are either ignoring it or are not having they kids follow it. Or at best they are just following it for a few weeks at best. I think they have the attitude that kids will be kids. I also believe they don't think that I will evict all of them (there are 4 tenants that have kids of age that will pay in the parking lot) over this. One of them even said so.
    3. Is there anything I can do short of evicting all of them?
    4.. What would you do?

    thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    OH10
    Posts
    17,019

    Default Re: Childre Playing in the Drive Way and Surrounding Area

    Are there safety clauses in the leases? I would declare the children playing a hazard to safety and send an eviction warning for playing in the lot.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Children Playing in the Driveway and Surrounding Area

    "[K]ids cannot play on the driveways around parked cars in the hallways" - why are people parking cars in the hallways?

    Children play outside. I can't see the premises from here. What area is designated as an appropriate place for kids to play?

    If you create rules and choose not to enforce them, you run the risk of having them deemed waived when you later try to enforce them in court. Do you have a provision in your lease about community rules and waiver? If so, what is it?

    The mere fact that a community rule is broken does not necessarily mean that you'll succeed in evicting a tenant over the breach. You can expect the court to look at patterns of conduct, your documentation supporting past warnings, and the materiality of the offense. It doesn't much matter if you don't think that creating a paper trail will be effective - if you choose not to document your case, you may be setting yourself up for a loss in court.

    Even if you send warnings to all parents due to your belief that a child may have been playing in violation of the rules, but don't know whose child was involved, that's not going to stand as grounds to evict any of the tenants. If you want to build a case for eviction, you have to show which tenant(s) were violating the rules and on what occasion(s).

    If you try to evict all of your tenants with kids without evidence that they have all violated their leases to the degree that eviction is warranted, you can expect to be sued for a fair housing violation.

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