You can sue the manager of a real estate property for negligence in the same way that you can sue any other business owner. With some exceptions, suing a property management company for negligence is straightforward, but it’s not always a good idea.
How to Sue Your Property Manager for Negligence
In most cases, you’ll already know the name of the property management company. If so, you can usually file against the company for negligence in the court you choose, either your state Superior Court if the injury or property damage you suffered was severe or small claims court if it was not. There are a couple of conditions, however, that can making filing suit difficult or impossible.
One Exception to the Rule
In some cases, you might find that the property management company is a limited liability company without listed owners. Although it’s almost inevitable that a property management LLC will have assets your suit could claim, unless you can serve the real parties who control the LLC, you have no obvious way of bringing suit. Increasingly, commercial real estate is owned by such LLCs.
In such cases, it might be good to consult an experienced real estate lawyer with some previous experience in “piercing the veil” of LLC ownerships or, alternatively, to conclude that the expense involved in pursuing your claim with a real estate attorney makes suing impractical.
Sometimes a good attorney with some research resources can uncover the real owners almost immediately. In a few notorious cases, however, years of attempts to find out who owns certain properties have been unsuccessful.
Another Exception: Arbitration Clauses
If you signed an arbitration agreement when you signed your lease, you might have given up the right to sue in a court of law, and you’ll have to pursue your claim in arbitration.
Although arbitration clauses are increasingly included in contracts between corporations and consumers – often to the consumer’s disadvantage – they are less frequent in real estate leases for the simple reason that when the property manager files an eviction notice against a tenant with a contract that includes the arbitration requirement, the arbitration process itself can slow down the eviction by several months.
Nevertheless, arbitration clauses in real estate leases aren’t rare. If you have signed a lease that includes one, you’ll have to pursue your claim without going to court, probably first in mediation and then, if that fails, through arbitration before a panel of one or three arbitrators.
Suing May Not Be Your Best Option
Before bringing suit, consider if you’ve really exhausted all other means of being compensated for the damage you’ve suffered. In most business situations, once one party brings a suit against the other, cooperation and amity between the two parties can end. At that point, you might have an angry, possibly vengeful landlord to deal with, which is uncomfortable at best.
It’s always a good idea to think of suing as the last resort and first to exhaust every other means, beginning with a friendly discussion, following up if necessary with a letter outlining the damage you’ve suffered and how and why you believe the property management company’s negligence contributed to it. Often, expressing a willingness to discuss the situation gets the conversation started, especially if you signal that you’re willing to reach a compromise.
Note: This is not legal advice, seek advice from a professional real estate lawyer for more information.