Resident Altercations and Landlord Liability: What Property Managers Need to Know

_{By Kathleen Hannon, Senior Director of Communications, Cloudastructure. A former agency director, Kathleen has led messaging strategy for tech, security, manufacturing, and higher ed brands for more than a decade. Kathleen writes and produces Cloudastructure’s educational content for multifamily property professionals, including blogs, webinars, campaigns, case studies and white papers. She’s also the award-winning author of two young adult novels.}

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A Wake-Up Call for Multifamily Operators

If you're a property manager, director, or multifamily executive, chances are you’ve dealt with some form of resident conflict. But what starts as a noise complaint can quickly escalate into an assault—or worse. And when it does, you’re the one holding the liability bag.

At Cloudastructure’s recent webinar Resident Altercations & Landlord Liability, Melinda McBeth, a landlord defense attorney at Offit Kurman, and Jen Free, Director of Sales at Cloudastructure and former multifamily operator, offered hard truths, practical tips, and legal strategies for handling conflict on-site.

Here’s what every property manager should know.

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1. Resident Conflicts Are a Leading Source of Liability

• 1 in 4 multifamily properties face a liability lawsuit every year, many of them stemming from resident altercations.
  
• Multifamily communities are the second most common defendants in negligent security lawsuits related to assault.
  
• A single violent altercation can cost millions—one company recently settled a case for $20 million.
  
  

Rising insurance costs and shrinking carrier options in high-risk states make prevention and documentation more critical than ever.

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2. You Can't Prevent Every Fight—But You Can Prepare

Forseeability is the cornerstone of liability: did anyone report these residents arguing before? How many times? As the property manager, what action did you take, and did you document that action?

Hint: if you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen. 

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🔑 Best Practices from Melinda McBeth:

• Stay neutral. Taking sides in disputes opens you to defamation claims from the accused.
  
• Document everything. Incident reports, emails, and 911 call logs can make or break your defense.
  
• Know your local laws. Rules for inspections, lock changes, and surveillance footage access vary by state.
  
• Act fast. Delaying intervention after known issues makes liability more likely.
  
  

Keep in mind the Fair Housing Act may apply if the argument was about one or more protected classes, such as racial discrimination, religion, etc. Get in touch immediately with management and company counsel in such scenarios. 

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3. When to Intervene—and When to Call the Police

Resident altercations range from annoying to alarming—from incense complaints to stalking, assault, and even homicide.

“If you operate a multifamily property and haven’t been sued yet, brace yourself. It’s probably coming,” McBeth warned.

If you see or hear evidence of physical violence or credible threats, always call law enforcement and document the action taken.

Do NOT allow staff to physically intervene, but do:

• Separate residents if it's possible
  
• Initiate inspections (as allowed by local law)
  
• Notify legal counsel immediately
• Pull all surveillance footage immediately and store it

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‍4. Fair Housing: Always a Factor

Federal protections under the Fair Housing Act and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) require careful navigation:

• You can’t evict victims of domestic violence or harassment.
  
• Resident-on-resident harassment can trigger fair housing liability if the perpetrator is targeting someone in a protected class.
  
• You may be required to transfer victims to safer units or change locks when protective orders are filed.
  
  

While privacy is required by law in these cases, always make sure your staff is informed of any changes in status. A lone mistake can escalate a conflict or drive a lawsuit. 

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5. AI Surveillance and Remote Guarding: Your Legal Safety Net

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is the equivalent of War & Peace. While traditional security cameras are helpful, Cloudastructure’s AI Surveillance and Remote Guarding solution goes much further:

✅ Key Benefits:

• Proactive intervention. Live guards can issue real-time audio talk-downs before violence escalates.
  
• Incident reports with time-stamped footage. A goldmine for legal defense.
  
• 98% deterrence rate. Prevent crime before it happens, not just record it.
  
  

“If I had AI surveillance back when I was managing, I could’ve avoided so many hours of reviewing useless footage—and probably a few lawsuits,” said Jen Free.

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6. Surveillance Isn't Just for Safety—It's for Retention

Today’s renters want to feel secure. Without visible safety measures like AI surveillance and live monitoring, a single incident can damage your brand, hurt occupancy, increase churn, and even potentially cost you millions. 

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Final Takeaways

✔️ What You Should Be Doing Now:

• Audit your surveillance system—are your cameras active, monitored, and properly positioned? And ALWAYS store the footage of an incident in long term storage.
  
• Train your staff on legal response, and de-escalation.
• Implement and maintain a case management protocol and adhere to it rigorously. Lawsuits can emerge three and even four years later when staff and witnesses have moved on.
• Consult your legal team any time violence, harassment, or protective orders come into play.
• Use AI surveillance and remote guarding to proactively reduce risks—and prove you did your due diligence.
  
  

Want to watch the full Resident Altercations webinar? Click here. 

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📅 Upcoming Webinar:

Winning Budget Battles in Multifamily Security
Featuring Ed Burnett, former UPS VP of Global Security
Thursday, August 14, 2025
Register Now

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🧠 Need a Security Audit?

Cloudastructure offers free site assessments to help you meet your duty of care and protect your tenants and team.

Book a Call today or visit https://www.cloudastructure.com/ to learn more.

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