Property Owner Responsibilities

In your post, Texas Civil Code Needs a Little TLC, I understand your frustration with feeling safe in temporary housing. I agree that landlords should be required by some sort of code that would protect their tenants. Safety should be paramount, particularly in this college town. And apartments are seemingly not motivated to please their tenants since, as you stated, they could have someone else in your unit in no time.

I wish there was more information in the news story about what the complex did or did not do after the first and second incident. Perhaps they were not even notified, although I find that hard to believe. Perhaps this man was just that good of a thief and the prior thefts hadn't been noticed.

Regardless, property owners should be required to ensure their tenants feel safe. There should be certain guidelines with regard to lighting, access, etc. Although they should not be expected to provide 100% safety, that would be impossible. Tenants must still be diligent and observant. There is no substitution for an effective community looking out for each other. Property owners could help connecting tenants with social events or even just introducing new tenants to existing ones. When everyone knows the people around, they are more likely to note suspicious behavior.

Crime is still a part of all of our lives, as it has been from the beginning of society. There will always be people that take what doesn't belong to them. But I agree that property owners need to do what they can to keep their property as safe as they can without penalizing their tenants.