San Diego Landlords Are You Responsible if Your Tenant’s Dog Attacks Someone

San Diego Dog Bite Attorney – We recently had an interesting call from a landlord.  It seems that their tenants’ dog bit someone in the front yard and now the landlord is being sued.  Of course, the wanted to know if they were on the hook their tenants’ dog bite and if their insurance would cover it.  They also wanted to know if their insurance covered their renter.

This is one of area of the law where being San Diego Real Estate Lawyers AND San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys is really as this deals with both liability of a property owner for an injury.

The easiest of the above questions to answer is whether or not the landlord’s insurance covers the tenants.  The answer is almost definitely no. The property owners insurance likely covers liability issues for the landlord and for loss that is not the landlord’s fault.  It is not renter’s insurance.

The questions of whether or not the landlord is on the hook for the actions of the tenants’ dog is little trickier.  There are several issues at play.

First and foremost is California’s dog bite statute.  Basically the statute says that the owner of a dog is responsible for the damages suffered from their dog biting a person in a public place or a person lawfully in a private place.  It does not matter whether or not the dog had a history of being vicious.  Notice this only applies to the dog’s owner.

In our scenario today, the landowner is not the owner of the dog.  But is the owner on the hook under some other theory?  Maybe.

Let us assume the landlord did not even know a dog was on the property.  Then the landlord is probably not on the hook if the dog bites someone on the property.

Now let us assume the landlord knew the tenant had the dog but the dog had no history of viciousness and was not a known dangerous breed.  Again, the landlord is PROBABLY not on the hook.

Now a step farther, the landowner knew the dog was on the property and knew the dog had a history viciousness.  Now we are getting closer to the landlord being on the hook.

What are the theories here?  Well the first is negligence.  Was the landlord negligent in renting his property to a tenant with a known vicious dog? How about if the fence was in bad repair so it would be easy for that vicious dog to escape?

Those same questions fall under the area of premises liability which may hold the landowner responsible for hazards on the property.

But another important question is whether or not the landlord had turned over full control and possession of the property to owner because this may provide a defense.

But what about liability under nuisance?  There is case law in the state of California that suggests that a landowner may be liable for a nuisance even if the landowner was not aware of the nuisance.  Scary huh?

As you can see what seems like a simple area of law has a  lot of issues at play and EVERY case is different.  I also want to be clear about one thing – no matter where the facts fall in the above hypotheticals about dog bites, that does not mean a landlord will not be sued and have to defend anyway.  Often tenants do not have insurance but landlord’s usually do.  This can lead to the landowner being sued just because they have a deep pocket.  If this is an issue that has effected you whether as a person that was bit by a dog or you are just a worried landlord, do not hesitate to give us a call.

Our San Diego Real Estate Lawyers and San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys are dedicated to helping people with their hybrid Real Estate and Personal Injury issues. Call us TODAY at 619.615.0767 or visit our website at www.ThompsonLawSD.com.

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