Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New Jersey

Re: Prom Week House

You are correct.

From the point of view of exposure to liablility claims, it would be hard to think of a more dangerous situation. There are some concerns I have that you did not mention:

1. Your friend can't count on any insurance being of help even if he buys a renter's policy. Perhaps these teens are very well-behaved, but if they are not, any insurer who provided renter's coverage will have his lawyers jumping through hoops trying to avoid the policy.

2. When things go sour, it won't only be victims and parents that will be looking for redress. The police and prosecutor are going to be looking for someone to hang. Given the fact that there are minors involved, the possibilities abound.

I don't think that a jury would have any difficulty concluding that is is an act of negligence to place a group of unsupervised teens in charge of their own house for graduation week. Having done that, your friend then becomes responsible to anyone injured as a result of that act in any way that is forseeable.

Your friend should carefully consider the fact that this type of risk-taking and risk-creating behaviour is exactly what the civil and criminal law is designed to prevent. We hammer people for creating unreasonable and unjustified risks so that people will not do so in the future. No one will sympathize with your friend when the predictable damage happens and he will be used as an example for posterity.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm