My daughter is in college and moved in to a 5-bedroom, three-story rental house in Baltimore city this fall. Being a landlord and father, of course I told her to go around and make sure there are working smoke detectors. As near as she can tell, they've only found one smoke detector in the upstairs hall, and haven't even tested it to make sure it works. By my count, they should have at least 9 (one on each floor including the basement, and one in each bedroom.)

I told her to contact the landlord, and she's done that, but he hasn't addressed the issue yet. She's a little reluctant to push it, because they've already had to contact him about several other items (mice, roaches, running toilet). She's trying to be a good partner and not be a PITA, but my impression so far is that he doesn't run a very tight ship. I assume if she contacted the city, they'd be all over that, but nobody wants to do that for the same reasons we don't want our tenants to contact the city.

I wouldn't mind in the least driving down there, spending a hundred bucks and an hour of my time, and putting up a few smoke detectors (with the landlord's permission). I fully understand it's not in any way my responsibility, but it really wouldn't be putting me out at all, and I'd rather my daughter and her friends be safe. Would even be nice to spend some time with her.

So my question: Would that somehow open me up to liability, though, if something happens?

Baltimore has Baltimore's reputation. It can be a cool place with a lot of history, or it can be really run-down and rat-infested.

Your daughter chose a place with mice, roaches, a running toilet, and one smoke detector. With 5 bedrooms in play, I'm sure it's because she likes the people who chose to live there first-- or are they all strangers?

I'd go to the local box store and pick up a few packs of battery-operated smoke detectors. Put a pushpin in the wall, and hang the battery-operated smoke detector in each room that needs one that doesn't have one. 5 years ago, the First Alert 9v-battery-operated smoke detectors run about $5 each. Nowadays, those are $10, if you can find them, but it's easier to find the $15-$20 ones nowadays. Some of those also detect carbon monoxide.

Mail them to her. They should come with the 9v battery included. Tell her to sharpie the date on them before she assembles them.

Liability for if the house burned down and "your" alarms didn't work? I don't know, but I would rather have them there & be able to sleep at night, & take whatever little chance of liability there "may" be (or maybe not.)

I Totally agree with Deanna.

Break the lease? Well... not too sure yet...

Running toilet - normal problem, landlord just may not have noticed it at turnover.

Roaches - how many? Is it possible one of the 5 house-mates just brought some in with them? Teach them all about products to use to control them. Introduce them to domyownpestcontrol.com and keeping food in tight zip-loc bags. As Deanna said: give them the info they need and a nudge to learn how to solve their own problems.

Mice- again, how bad/for how long? It is the time of year that it gets chilly outside and mice look for a warmer spot inside. It's nature. Teach the kids how to set out traps.

Slumlords gonna slumlord.

I also would not accept a call from a parent, LL or not.

The pro college landlords around here typically do not take great care of their places. They get as many students in there as possible, rake in the cash and let the places fall into disrepair.

We were fortunate enough to buy a place away from campus and house both kids while they got brainwashed in college.

You want to visit her anyhow, so take some treats for her. Including a few smoke detectors (& CO if needed). She can pass them around, install them or sell them on FB.

I assume with roommates with such a large place. I am also thinking that in a big city, there is going to be limited rental opportunity for students in their price range. So, if she is thinking about breaking the lease, she had better look carefully to see what it could be replaced with.

Me, I'd just buy some smoke detectors and fix the running toilet. Put out some roach bait and some mouse traps. We are not talking a lot of money here, but if there are roommates, perhaps they would chip in and help pay the cost of the smoke detectors and pest control.

No easy answers. At one level, you want there very best for our kids, and at the same time - the kids have face real life issues in which we have shielded them from previously.

What does your daughter want you to do?

We can all agree that much of this can be tied to bad land lording, it isn't always the LLs fault. There are not any easy answers, but I do like the idea of mailing overnight new alarms and empowering the kids to take on responsibility and problem-solving while being good tenants.

Appreciate all the responses. She's not considering breaking the lease, as it's a large, decent looking house that's close to campus, and those are very hard to come by. And the issues identified are all things she's comfortable working through, since they all have relatively simple solutions.

Mail them, tell her to install them. She can at least pull the tab and activate them.