Monetary, Interpersonal Laws and Din Torah (12)
Students Who Rent Together. It has become a common practice for a group of Yeshivah students, especially in Eretz Yisroel, to rent a dirah together. Similarly, seminary or working girls who are living away from home, often rent an apartment together. According to the Shulchan Aruch (1) whenever two or more people buy, borrow, or rent a room together, each one has his or her own obligation for their own share of usage and is automatically a guarantor for the obligation of the others in this joint venture of buying, borrowing, or renting. Because of this, if the landlord cannot get payment from one of the tenants, the others will have to pay for the unpaid portion between them. If each one rented their individual space separately, then each one is only obligated for their own usage.
Obligations for Condition and Maintenance of Premises. It is the responsibility of the landlord to provide normal and safe living conditions according to the standard of that community. This includes both halacha requirements (2) for safety as well as city codes for safety. The RM’A (3) rules that even if the tenant saw the apartment before signing his lease and did not specifically ask for certain basic living needs, we do not assume that he is taking the apartment as is, and he can according to halacha, ask the landlord later for the basic needs to be done.
Ongoing Maintenance. The Gemara (4) provides the formula of Chazal with regard to which repairs are the landlord’s responsibility and obligation, and which fall under the responsibility of the tenant. Items which require a professional contractor to fix are certainly the obligation of the landlord, whereas things that a regular person can do for himself are considered the obligation of the tenant. For example, if a bunch of light bulbs have to be screwed in, the landlord does not have to do it. Another example of this would be mowing the lawn.
Mezuzah. The Gemara (5) says that the obligation of buying and putting up mezuzos is the obligation of the tenant. A mezuzah is not a part of the house but rather a mitzvah obligation on whomever is dwelling there to put up a mezuzah.
(1) חו"מ עז:א (2) שם:תכו (3) רמ"א שם:שיד (4) בבא מציעא קא.: (5) שם
Comentarios