Beach Week: Signing the Lease

[Anonymous]

I know there is another thread started about beach week but my question is not about handing condoms etc to my son. He has asked me to sign the lease for his friends' house on the Outer Banks. The friends have proposed having one mom stay nearby (but not in the house) for half the week, and I would stay nearby (but not in the house) the other half.

For those who think this is a poor parenting move, I would say that my son has always shown himself to be responsible, runs with a great group of friends, and is going to be unsupervised at college about 6-7 weeks after that week.

I am leaning toward doing it but want to understand the risks. Has anyone done this in the past or planning to do it this year? What do I need to be considering from a legal (not moral) standpoint?

[Anonymous]

Off the top of my head, if you sign the lease doesn't that basically make it "your" house for the duration of the rental period? I would worry about:
- the teens trashing the house leaving you liable to pay damages
- the teens getting busted for underage drinking at the house, at which point you may well be liable for that just as parents can be for underage alcohol consumption at parties at their homes

Honestly, even given those risks I would still be open to considering it if asked, under certain conditions, given my kids' current group of friends and their precedent for avoiding most teenage type trouble.

[Anonymous]

NO! Lawyer here. If the kids break any of the owner's rules, you are liable. If any of the kids dive off the deck (and they do) and break their neck you are liable. If someone starts vomiting and is taken to the hospital you are liable. If someone dies from alcohol poisoning you are definitely liable. Doesn't the lease say that YOU, the leasee will be on the premises? I own a rental house and my paperwork specifically states that adults will be on the premises, occupation is no more than six including adults and no large teen parties. If you break any of those rules you are liable.

Bad bad things happen at these parties. I had a friend who was paralyzed from the neck down when he went through the front windshield "while on a run to the market" even though he was seated in the back.

For what it's worth, the principal at our local public of 2200 said at a PTA meeting, "About this time of year your kids will be asking you to sign leases for beach weekend. I am advising, no, begging, you to not do it. It opens a host of problems for the kids, the high school, and the parents. You son may be telling you that 'all the other parents are doing it' but I, as principal, can tell you that they are not, and that not ALL the seniors are going to beach week. Please do not sign those things and please discourage beach week participation." And as to the comment about about this particular group of friends and precedent for avoiding most teenage type trouble - that's not the issue - it's the drunk slamming into their car and ejecting a member of your house party. It's a friend of a friend who shows up and rapes someone. It's someone producing a knife or gun. It's another friend producing drugs followed by a raid and there you are in your nighty at the Rehoboth Police Station explaining that you had signed the lease but weren't present. AS a lawyer, it makes no difference to me if you are back in D.C. or next door. If you are not present to see these things happening on a lease that you've signed, you are negligent.

[Anonymous]

Our kids signed the lease themselves. A few were over 18 at the time of the lease signing and most were 18 by beach week. Oddly this seemed to be okay with the landlord. They caused no damage and got their full deposit back.

[Anonymous]

I'd consider this if the house was on the smaller side (8 and not 18 kids, for example), the entire beach group and parents have a pre-meeting, and each family (preferably each kid) hands over a check for $500 for the lease-signer to hold until the landlord returns the security after beach week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd consider this if the house was on the smaller side (8 and not 18 kids, for example), the entire beach group and parents have a pre-meeting, and each family (preferably each kid) hands over a check for $500 for the lease-signer to hold until the landlord returns the security after beach week.

And the parents all sign (by return email) a "hold-harmless" agreement that basically says each kid/parent are responsible for themselves and you won't sue the parent signing the lease. And the kids had no cars -- rent them bikes.

[Anonymous]

My mom signed my lease in the 90s and told me if we got in trouble she wouldn't pay for college. I had a strong motivation to keep folks in line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd consider this if the house was on the smaller side (8 and not 18 kids, for example), the entire beach group and parents have a pre-meeting, and each family (preferably each kid) hands over a check for $500 for the lease-signer to hold until the landlord returns the security after beach week.

And the parents all sign (by return email) a "hold-harmless" agreement that basically says each kid/parent are responsible for themselves and you won't sue the parent signing the lease. And the kids had no cars -- rent them bikes.

If someone's kid gets seriously hurt or killed, a hold harmless isn't going to offer you protection from a lawsuit. Don't let yourself get lulled into a false sense of security. And if by some extremely unlikely chance you got a lawsuit dismissed because of a hold harmless, it still wouldn't protect you from being sued in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Protection from a lawsuit is different from not being liable. But, whatever. Yes, terrible things could happen. And yet, many of us who have lived through it are offering OP concrete steps we tool to manage beach week expectations. Or keep your kid from beach week but don't ever imagine that just a few months later s/he'll be abducted and killed at UVA or shot at in the FSU library.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Protection from a lawsuit is different from not being liable. But, whatever. Yes, terrible things could happen. And yet, many of us who have lived through it are offering OP concrete steps we tool to manage beach week expectations. Or keep your kid from beach week but don't ever imagine that just a few months later s/he'll be abducted and killed at UVA or shot at in the FSU library.

It has no bearing on liability either. The only thing hold harmless agreements are good for is scaring people into thinking they can't sue when something goes wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Protection from a lawsuit is different from not being liable. But, whatever. Yes, terrible things could happen. And yet, many of us who have lived through it are offering OP concrete steps we tool to manage beach week expectations. Or keep your kid from beach week but don't ever imagine that just a few months later s/he'll be abducted and killed at UVA or shot at in the FSU library.

It has no bearing on liability either. The only thing hold harmless agreements are good for is scaring people into thinking they can't sue when something goes wrong.

It's not "the only thing" and sometimes what it is is enough. And signing a lease doesn't render you liable.

[Anonymous]

Pneed to be in the house. If kids want to go that it is what we told them. All the houses had parent chaperones for my DC beach week, for exactly all the reasons stated above.

We also did not allow a house with a pool. Too much temptation for someone to jump off the roof.

Chaperone cars blocked in kid cars so no one could drive

We were in the Outer Banks. There was no way a kid could sign the lease. They had to be 25.

[Anonymous]

Sorry that is supposed to be "Parents need to be in the house"

[Anonymous]

We have a house at the beach. We see kids drinking on the roof of this one house with a low slope roof all the time. I now have the owner and relators contact info so I can call to let them know. Kids are not smart, don't do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a house at the beach. We see kids drinking on the roof of this one house with a low slope roof all the time. I now have the owner and relators contact info so I can call to let them know. Kids are not smart, don't do it.

Yes, and those "not smart" kids will be at UVA a few weeks after beach week. Will you go to UVA with them?