Fight The Hypo

Another quintessentially law school experience…

So, we’re taking a vacation to the Outer Banks this summer with some friends. Like many, we found a property online and booked it. Last night - about a week later - I received the rental agreement in the mail. I read every. single. word. of it. It all looked pretty straight forward, but I got a kick out of this sentence: “Most homes are served by septic systems.” (emphasis added) Visions of Mrs. Rush and her port-o-john trap door danced in my head. It’s even got the Hadley Rule covered: “… in no event shall Owner be held liable for any consequential or secondary damages.”

And then… I looked up the statute it references (the Vacation Rental Act, N.C.G.S.A. § 42(a) (West 2008)) and read every. single. word. of it. It also looked rather straight forward. The statute was enacted, partly, in response to a court decision finding that the protections for renters in the state’s Residential Rental Agreements Act did not apply to vacation property renters. Since these tenants were not renting their primary residence, there could be no duty - imposed by common law or the then-current statutory regime- imposed by vacation renters on landlords to provide habitable premises. The case involved the collapse of a deck that injured the family who was standing on it at the time.

I’m at the point where the indemnity and merger clauses kind of scare me because I know what they mean. But I’m also thinking of the typical exceptions to these clauses and the parol evidence rule and unconscionability and unequal bargaining power and adhesion contracts…. etc.

I was also particularly interested in the trip insurance provision - providing for a refund of money spent under certain circumstances, i.e. when a hurricane causes you to evacuate or the house burns down, etc. When I was in 8th grade, my family was evacuated from the Outer Banks by Hurricane Emily. I remember sleeping at a rest stop and spending a night in a school gym in Wilson, NC. So… we got the insurance.

Of course there are infinite procedural and substantive issues which I know little or nothing about. I have no knowledge of local rules either. My cursory glance at the law only helps me define some issues. Still, even though my vacations will never be the same again (at least until after the bar) it continues to strike me how differently I view these things now.

Plus, we’re likely to have an uneventful trip - so long as Mrs. Sherpa behaves herself.