What To Do When You Receive a Tenant Demand Letter

The dreaded demand letter is a letter that can simultaneously be worryingly serious and frustratingly frivolous. In the area of residential rental real estate, demand letters generally tend to be issued by a disgruntled former or current tenant or by someone who was injured on your property.

This article provides a brief guide to what you should do upon receipt of a demand letter.

Read the letter
This basic step will help you understand the full picture of what the opposing party is alleging and demanding. This is also necessary to determine if the opposing party has set a deadline for response.

Assemble documents/preserve evidence (such as video recordings/surveillance)
If you have not done so already, save video footage, incident reports, email communications and any other document, picture, or record.

Build a timeline
A good timeline will include the date of the incident/work order request(s) and all action taken by the landlord. Example: September 1, 2020 – Tenant submitted work order for broken heater. September 2, 2020 – Landlord responded to tenant to schedule repair. Etc.

Do not hand over any evidence or documents to the opposing party
Other than a copy of the lease agreement and addendum, a landlord is not generally required to provide internal documents or evidence to a tenant or demanding individual.

Do not promise or pay funds without obtaining a release of liability in exchange
Often landlords will waive some debt owed by the tenant or make some monetary offer to make the problem go away. A release of liability is a solid guard against the problem resurfacing and/or the tenant making additional demands.

Loop in outside counsel and insurance
It is a good practice to notify legal counsel of a potential incident or claim sooner rather than later. They can help assess whether additional outside counsel should be consulted, and whether a claim should be made to insurance carriers.

Disclosure: I am not an attorney, and this is not intended to be legal advice. Please seek legal counsel.