Court: Landlords Can't Ban Satellite Dishes

[Nick]

I subscribe to the 'Legal Survival.com' legal newsletter, which reports this U.S. Court of Appeals decision

Landlords and condominium associations cannot prevent tenants from installing satellite dishes. The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit upheld a Federal Communications Commission rule that leases, zoning ordinances and condominium association rules can not restrict a tenant's right to install dishes, antennas and other telecommunications devices. The original rule, which applied only to viewers with "an ownership interest" in the property, was expanded in 1998 to include renters. The FCC has interpreted the rule to permit the imposition of "reasonable" limits. Property owners who are concerned about liability for property damage and personal injury caused by improperly installed equipment should take the following precautions:

1. Require a security deposit before the equipment is installed to cover any damages.
2. Require the tenant to purchase liability insurance.
3. List places where the satellite dish is allowed, for example, below the eave line, back or front yard.

www.legalsurvival.com (http://www.legalsurvival.com/e-mailed_newsletters/fall_2005.html#d)

[kenglish]

Some of those recommendations are "iffy". They (deposits, insurance) would have to be required on all items you have (not just sat dishes). A BBQ grill could cause a fire, lawn chairs could blow off the balcony, potted plants can fall on someone.....so they can't single out dishes.

[FTA Michael]

Yup.

1) Any security deposit requirement would have to cover anything in the exclusive-use area, including flower pots and grills. (To be fair, grills are often banned from balcony areas.) I suppose an inventive landlord could narrow it to anything electronic, or anything requiring a cord leading inside. In any event, the security deposit should reflect what actual damages the item could reasonably cause.

2) Requiring all tenants to purchase liability insurance sounds like a good idea to me. Again, the landlord couldn't single out dish users.

3) A list of preferred locations is nice, but IF a tenant requires a non-preferred exclusive-use location to receive the signal he wants, the landlord can't prevent that.