When a landlord (or HOA) is in a dog-bite case

The bite statute usually names the owner or keeper. Landlords show up under ordinary negligence: they knew, they could have acted, they did not. That theory is how a $100,000 renter’s policy becomes a building policy with real limits.

Facts that pull a landlord in

• Prior complaints from other tenants about the same dog.
• A lease that banned the animal, or banned the breed, and was not enforced.
• A manager who had seen the dog lunge in a hallway.
• An HOA fine that was never followed by removal.

States differ on how far this goes. Some require actual knowledge of viciousness, not merely knowledge that a dog lived there. “There is a dog in 4B” is not the same as “4B’s dog bit the mail carrier in March.”