Blind Tenant
A visually impaired person applied for my rental. She intends to occupy it with her adult daughter. How do I sign a rental agreement? Do I sign an agreement with her daughter only and just list the disabled person without her signature? Do I need to include a clause that I am not responsible for any accidents that may happen due to disability?
Thank you,
Alla
How does the blind resident sign other legal documents, or checks?
Sometimes, they have retained their legal rights, and simply need someone to put their hand where the signature line is. Hopefully, she has a Power of Attorney (POA)
I would not allow anyone else to sign for her UNLESS they have a Power of Attorney. If she does not have one, a local attorney can draw one up. If the daughter is her POA, and they are both renting the unit, then the daugther would sign as POA, and then sign for herself.
I have never heard of a clause for disability accidents. I would think not. The ADA would probably have issue with that, but would refer you to your own attorney.[ Edited by 64Ford on Date 09/29/2004 ]
Thank you, 64Ford!
POA seams the best way to handls this situation.
I'll tell you this. Be as accomodating as possible. Disabled people hate change especially since people tend to treat them poorly.
A blind person has to become intimately familiar with the house to move around. So moving to different houses is an EXTREME inconvenience. If you lock in these tenets, my guess is that they will be there a really long time.
[addsig]
Thank you SavvyYoungster,
My biggest concern is what if she decides to get a specially trained dog. By law, I cannot reject her because of that even my ad says “no pets”. I guess the best I can do is to add a provision to my rental agreement that an additional deposit will be required for a specially trained dog.
One of my tenants is visually impaired. He did not get his dog until after he moved in. He has been a very good tenant and tries hard to please. I have had no problems with him because of his disability other than telling the person who walks his dog clean up after the dog.
I wouldn't worry about or try to stop a lead dog helping your tenant. As long as it is truly trained to be a trained dog it will be the best behaieved tenant you've ever had.
Dogs as a rule are not destructive to property. The problem, as usual, is with the people that train and own the dogs. A destructive dog has not been properly trained.
Any dog that is leading a blind person has had extensive training.