Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: apartment/condo rental

When you say you purchased "legal Rental application and Lease forms for the state of California" - from whom did you purchase them? I recently posted a response to someone about lease forms - its a long discussion of the types of forms available. You can search for that post on this board, but the upshot is this - no "pre-packaged" lease documents are going to 100% meet your needs. The only way to do that is to have an attorney review your situation and draft documents which fit your specific goals and needs. As for the stairs, there really is nothing you can do to protect yourself from being sued. Make sure that you have appropriate insurance for an income property (don't rely on homeowners insurance for a property you are renting out). You can add a disclosure to the lease warning the tenant of the potential dangers of stairs, but unless they are sub-standard for some reason, or unreasonably dangerous, stairs are stairs, and if they fall they will probably sue you, but unless there is some reason these stairs are more dangerous than other stairs, your probably over-thinking this situation. Check with your insurance carrier to see if they recommend any specific action on your part - if you do what they tell you to do, then you should be fine. As for your "legal forms", I'd suggest that its worth a little time and money to have an attorney in your area review them - a little money spent now could save you thousands in legal fees down the road.

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