For the residential landlords/investors....liability for negligence, page-2

Yes , there is a certain amount of liability as a landlord .

The first thing to do is make sure that you are adequately covered through as insurance policy . You need to be insured regardless of the standard you maintain in order to protect yourself financially .

If you use a property manager there is a certain expectation that they will monitor this situation through their regular inspections although ( in my experience ) I wouldn't completely rely on that .

I do regular inspections as well but I am a hands on type landlord . Apart from protecting yourself it actually saves you money to be proactive with property maintenance .

There are issues , such as getting gas appliances regularly serviced , that rental managers don't push enough . There was a sad case of two young boys dying in Victoria due to a faulty heater . The landlord was caught up in it at the time although I can't remember the outcome for him .

Ensuring that smoke detectors are regularly tested is also another important item imo .

In my view , as a responsible landlord you need to be across all the issues yourself rather than completely rely on the property manager .

Documentation of faults and/or complaints from the tenant need to be kept as well as evidence of subsequent repairs , even if you do them yourself . Receipts are useful in that situation .

What's the assignment that you are working on ? Is it from a legal aspect or for some other reason ?