While the green revolution may be doing much ultimately to make the planet more habitable, sloppy implementation of some of its features has had some tragic consequences. An unfortunate example has been the widespread adoption of electric powered bicycles. From an environmental standpoint, there can be little question that a well designed well equipped electric bicycle can provide a truly green transportation alternative for many people. However, the problem is not with the bicycles themselves, but with their batteries. Experience throughout many metropolitan regions has demonstrated that the bicycles can be as safe as the human powered version. Bicycles purchased from a major well-reputed manufacturer tend to be completely benign. However, cheap knock offs have proven to be an increasingly serious problem. The batteries that are initially installed in the cheap knock offs and inexpensive replacement batteries for the originally high quality factory installed batteries have a heightened risk of exploding or bursting into flames. If a person is present at the time of the mishap, there may be serious injury. If there is no person present during the mishap, the result can be a building fire. Thus, various clients of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. have been turning to us for help in writing lease clauses that help to mitigate these dangers.

In the wake of a recent overview of a client’s entire lease, Dov Treiman recommended the insertion of stronger anti-electric bicycle language. The client retained him to write the clause in question.

What he came up with, we now recommend for all residential leases. While this clause now appears in hundreds of leases in just this form, it is not yet the standard.  You will note in particular the delicate way in which it deals with electric wheelchairs, a form of transportation that a landlord must allow.

Electric Transportation Devices. Tenant shall not allow to be present on any of Landlord’s property, whether in the apartment or elsewhere, any battery powered vehicles other than automobiles and motorcycles and as to these two latter, storage shall be permitted only in any garage that may be appurtenant to the building and nowhere else. For purposes of this paragraph, “battery powered vehicle” includes but is not limited to battery powered skateboards, scooters, rolling platforms, bicycles and all other devices of any kind or description that use battery power to move human beings from one location to another. However, nothing in this paragraph restricts the use of devices necessitated by or as a reasonable accommodation to a disability, but even as to those devices, the batteries shall be used, maintained, and stored only in such ways as to ensure that they do not present a fire hazard. Any fire or explosion originating from any such battery shall be rebuttably presumed to have been occasioned by a failure of the Tenant to obey the Tenant’s obligations under this paragraph.

With our help, you can make this paragraph into a rider, incorporate it into your leases, or have us audit your lease forms for any shortcomings it may possess and include this change at that time.

We recommend that all of our clients who have not had a review of their lease forms in the past three years have us take a look at them. There is strong likelihood that the lease, legal when written, is in serious trouble now.