Autumn brings brightly colored trees and piles of fallen leaves. These fallen leaves raise the question of what to do with them as soon as they have been raked up. A kind of popular disposal method is to burn the unwanted leaves. But as a Lubbock rental property owner, should you let your tenants burn their leaves? While burning the leaves will help dispose of them quickly and appropriately, it can furthermore be a dangerous task to permit your tenants to carry out. In letting your tenant discover and learn safe and proper leaf disposal, you can better safeguard them and your property from any harm or wreckage.
Whatever form of open flame carries a certain amount of risk. Still, several property owners think that they can minimize the risks by following certain safety precautions. As an example, property owners who are making plans to burn fallen leaves will often do it on a clear patch of dirt with no overhanging branches or power lines. They will even pick a day that falls within a permitted burn timeline set by local governmental agencies, when winds are calm, and keep a garden hose on hand in case the flames get out of control.
Although, even these preventive measures can give rise to property damage if the fire gets out of control. In dry conditions, even a tiny amount of wind can carry sparks into dry foliage, sparking dry grasses and other materials that are often abundant during the fall. Open flames may indeed harm your tenant, pets, or others who are, by any chance, close by if the fire gets outside your property boundaries. Just in case harm or property damage does arise, as the property owner, you could be held liable for medical costs, legal fees, and other related expenses. Immediately when combined with the expenditure of the reconstruction you’ll have to bring on your own rental house, the probable costs produce a vital risk that should strongly discourage you from permitting leaf burning as a disposal method.
Even though the risks alone provide a compelling reason, there are other issues that present various grounds to ban leaf burning on your rental property. As an example, the smoke from burning leaves may produce toxic gases that can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, and even trigger respiratory distress in individuals with asthma or other conditions. Burning leaves is also bad for the environment, unleashing those same toxic gases into the atmosphere that have been proven to adversely affect both local and global ecosystems. Knowing the drawbacks of burning leaves, some local governments have banned leaf burning outright. Others let it be done, but limit it to certain months, designated locations, or to a certain size. Violating these municipal restrictions can result in fines and other legal consequences.
When burning leaves is a bad idea, you have to search for other safer ways to eliminate those fallen leaves. Alternatively, property owners could reduce the number of fallen leaves they need to rake by shredding them with a mulching lawnmower. This method might be helpful to manage the number of leaves that are required to be removed by turning it into fertilizer for your lawn instead. If your property is massive enough, you could additionally think about composting your fallen leaves in an unused corner at a considerable distance from the house. You perhaps can, likewise, hire a clean-up crew to show up and haul your fallen leaves away, which is an excellent alternative although it will cause an additional expenses.
Irrespective of how it gets executed, it is vital to make sure that the fallen leaves on your Lubbock rental property are being raked up and properly disposed of. Leaving them strewn all over the ground can surely give rise to safety issues while attracting pests and killing your landscape. However, leaf disposal must, moreover, be brought about in a way that does not create additional liability.
At Real Property Management Services, we can engage in several more tedious, time-consuming responsibilities– including leaf disposal – releasing you to zero-in on other parts of your real estate investing business. To take in more concerning what we can do for you, contact us online or call 806-853-6546 today.
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