Should I have my tenant sign a paper to not sue us for the storm damage?
 

I rent out my basement apartment and have a tenant there.
In massachusetts we got hit with a major state of emergency storm for a few days and my tenants apartment got about 3 inches of water ruining some unopened boxes.

Anyways he told me he's leaving in 2 weeks because of the storm, I have his security deposit still.

I want him to sign a paper saying he understand this storm was unusually bad and everyones basements got flooded and he agrees not to sue us. Before giving him his security deposit back.

Good idea or bad idea?

Oh and we dont have flood insurance, didnt need it until today.
he was asking me if we have flood insurance and if I have equity in the house, which makes me think he might sue us

well if you ask him to sign a paper asking not to be sued what do you think hes going to do

if he is asking about about insurance he wants some money for his shit being damaged

if he refuses to sign then it means he'll want to sue us.
he's desperate for cash now so if I dont give him his security deposit back (He refused to give me his ssn so I could put his name on the deposit account) then he'll be fucked until the court date when he gets it back

doesn't he have renters insurance?

he does not have renters insurance.

he's an engineer btw, so he's not stupid. yet he put "valuable" boxes on the floor and piled tons of boxes on top of them.
So it cant be very valuable if he's going to pile 8 boxes up high on top of valuables.

I'm not really seeing the purpose of having him sign this paper. Unless you did something extremely negligent, it's not your fault. Shit happens, it's his responsibility to have his own insurance.

I don't think flood insurance would cover his stuff anyway if he is the tenant. If it was your flood insurance, it would be for you or the structure, not him.

Sue yourself, there's a law about double jeopardy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_jeopardy

;-)

Dont you think you would be better off checking the laws in your state for holding someone's deposit, than asking a bunch of porn pushers on gfy?

In Texas, it would be illegal for you to withhold his deposit for that reason. Good chance that it would be there, too.

If you ask him, he will sue. Just give him back his security deposit and you'll be better off in the long run.

You're incriminating yourself by asking for that. Don't do that.

should have been covered in the lease/rental agreement
.