Looking for free legal advice on a non-aviation matter.

gismo

gismo

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I'm preparing to offer my parent's lake home in Michgan for weekly rentals this summer. I've installed a mooring for the renters to use if they bring a boat and want to require they sign a waiver indicating that said use is at their own risk. Can anyone suggest the appropriate language for a waiver like this.

The anchor consists of more than 250 lbs of steel with steel legs stuck into the hard lake bottom and attached to some heavy chain so it's unlikely it will get dragged but I don't want to get sued if someone's boat gets blown onto the shore in a bad storm.
 
My free legal advice to you would be to pay a Michigan attorney for legal advice.
 
Just put in the contract "This is not my mooring. use it at your own risk"


I am not a lawyer so that will only be $250
 
Witmo said:
My free legal advice to you would be to pay a Michigan attorney for legal advice.
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Tim is right. In fact, by virtue of your question( *I* don't want to be sued" ) my recommendation is that you talk to a Michigan attorney about a more global asset protection scheme for everything you're doing there. Short term rentals can breed all sorts of disputes....
 
Agree: ask a. Michigan counselor. And, talk to a good insurance broker.
 
gismo said:
I don't want to get sued
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I think you mean "I don't want to lose a lawsuit." Obviously no amount of signed papers prevents attempts at lawsuits. What you want is some imposing barriers. Check to see what Nolo Press has published on rentals.
 
Local chamber of commerce might have something for you. You shouldn't need a lawyer just to rent out a piece of property, it isn't rocket surgery. Word to the wise, look carefully at your tenants. They'll be the difference between a profitable experience and a disaster.
 
As my old lawyer buddy said, "Free legal advice is worth exactly what you paid for it."
 
Insurance.

Make sure you have plenty of it. There are no such things as "magic words" you can put in a contract to protect you. You can try, and they can help, but there will usually be a way around them. The insurance company will have some of the best flesh-eating lawyers on their retainer and will be responsible for defending the suit up to the policy limit.

IANAL.
 
maybe consider placing the lake home in an LLC?
Once you start renting this place out, you will also incur expenses that will be write offs too.
 
steingar said:
Local chamber of commerce might have something for you. You shouldn't need a lawyer just to rent out a piece of property, it isn't rocket surgery. Word to the wise, look carefully at your tenants. They'll be the difference between a profitable experience and a disaster.
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rocket surgery?
 
Overall, there are 4 approaches to Risk Management (not legal):

1) Avoidance: Get rid of the risk. Remove the mooring
2) Transference: Insurance in this case, or have the mooring constructed by a third party who will indemnify you for any liability relating to its failure. LLC could also be thrown in this category
3) Mitigation: Do what you can to make sure it never fails, make it stronger, etc.
4) Acceptance
a) Management: Accept the risk and have a fall-back plan if the event occurs
b) Contingency: Accept the risk, have funds set aside to pay off someone if failure causes damage
 
regarding an LLC, this is just a general consideration, not specific to reducing risk of the mooring as the installer (you) may be held personally liable for neglect in it's construction/installation, etc.
 
mikea said:
As my old lawyer buddy said, "Free legal advice is worth exactly what you paid for it."
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People routinely engage in contracts of significant value and risk without consulting an attorney on every bloody transaction. And this is as it should be. (Examples: how many people consult a lawyer every time they buy a car? When they sell a car? When they go grocery shopping? When they buy or sell all those dangerous tools in their garage?)

When you go to a lawyer in a situation as the OP described the most common thing you'll get is a bill and maybe some boilerplate contract that the lawyer pulled out of a filing cabinet that covers your situation close enough for litigation purposes. They'll fill in the blanks and send you on your way. Bah, I say. Boilerplate contracts are not that hard to find and use for any reasonably intelligent and house-broken person.
 
I'm preparing to offer my parent's lake home in Michgan for weekly rentals this summer
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For a long time I had a canal front cabin in Rockport Texas that I rented when I wasn't using it.

I'm telling you, you want to find a LOCAL attorney, pay him a hundred bucks, and sit down with him, tell him your plans, and listen.

If possible try and find a lawyer who is well connected locally, perhaps a current or former county attorney.

You may or may not have an issue with your mooring, but if you rent a vacation home then sooner or latter you're going to have a legal issue. Sooner or latter a tenant or neighbor will threaten to sue you for some real or imagined problem.

When that happens you want a local lawyer to contact the aggrieved party immediately. My experience has been an immediate 'lawyer letter' will shut down most complaints before they get out of hand.

You don't need the lawyer to prepare a bunch of documents or do a lot of work. You need him available, just in case. Think of him as the human equivalent of the emergency gear extension pump on your retractable airplane.

If you can't afford to sit down with a local lawyer and just give him an idea about what you're doing, then you can't afford to rent this house out.



It's that simple.
 
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I wish there was some law that just allowed someone to sign a document saying "this is at my own risk" and then invalidate any lawsuits.

It would open up all sorts of opportunities if people didn't have to fear BS liability suits.
 
gismo said:
I'm preparing to offer my parent's lake home in Michgan for weekly rentals this summer. I've installed a mooring for the renters to use if they bring a boat and want to require they sign a waiver indicating that said use is at their own risk. Can anyone suggest the appropriate language for a waiver like this.

The anchor consists of more than 250 lbs of steel with steel legs stuck into the hard lake bottom and attached to some heavy chain so it's unlikely it will get dragged but I don't want to get sued if someone's boat gets blown onto the shore in a bad storm.
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hire an attorney. also, the local/nearby law school may have a law clinic with law students who can maybe give feedback on this
 
cowman said:
I wish there was some law that just allowed someone to sign a document saying "this is at my own risk" and then invalidate any lawsuits.

It would open up all sorts of opportunities if people didn't have to fear BS liability suits.
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Even then they sue. The heirs sue. Sue sues.

Sue in Cook County Illinois and the jurors will make sure that you get your judgement like they got theirs.
 
cowman said:
I wish there was some law that just allowed someone to sign a document saying "this is at my own risk" and then invalidate any lawsuits.

It would open up all sorts of opportunities if people didn't have to fear BS liability suits.
Click to expand...

+1
:yesnod::yesnod:
 
mikea said:
Even then they sue. The heirs sue. Sue sues.

Sue in Cook County Illinois and the jurors will make sure that you get your judgement like they got theirs.
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The only real risk here is property damage to a renter's boat if it breaks loose from the mooring or the anchor moves. I can't see any issues with a renter's heirs suing because their parent's boat ended up on the beach overnight.

My expectation is that if a renter signs a waiver acknowledging that the use of the mooring is at his own risk they would have little success with a lawsuit if the mooring failed. I could get about the same effect simply by stating to the renter that they can use the mooring if they want but by doing so they accept the responsibility for determining it's suitability but unless they signed something I'd have a harder time proving that they agreed to this.
 
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