Laws Make Renting Safer
Apartment dwellers can sometimes be easy prey for violent criminals. Recognizing that apartment complexes often have some responsibility for the safety of their tenants, the courts are increasingly holding apartment complex operators liable for attacks, rapes, and other assaults on their tenants.
Apartment complexes have been required to compensate victims of crime when the management failed to have adequate security patrolling the apartment units, failed to provide adequate lighting, or failed to control who came onto their property.
Responding to the needs of a growing population of apartment renters, the Texas legislature has also passed a new law tightening security requirements for apartments and other rented dwellings. The law applies not only to apartment complexes, but to rented single-family houses, town homes, duplexes, condominiums, and mobile homes. The law requires that certain types of security devices be placed on all exterior doors and windows, whether or not they are requested by the tenant, and regardless of when the rental property was constructed. These devices include:
- a window latch on each exterior window ;
- a doorknob lock or keyed deadbolt on each exterior door;
- and a sliding door pin lock, a sliding door handle latch, or a sliding door security bar on each exterior glass sliding door.
If construction of the rental property was completed on or after September 1, 1993, a keyless bolting device and a door viewer is required on each exterior door of the dwelling.
If your apartment does not comply with these requirements, you should notify your landlord, preferably in writing, and request these essential security devices for your safety.
