It's fair play to let your home exchange partners know about dangerous or bizarre aspects of your home. Doing this helps keep your guests and your home safe. But it may also be legally advisable to take this kind of responsibility, especially in the United States where people sue each other for any reason.
AIR
Responsible parents will thank you for giving them the info they need to keep their children safe in your home. Here in Manhattan, where all but a handful of homes are perched two or more floors off the ground, metal guard bars are required by law on all windows.
Even though I have children I installed the bars reluctantly. They are not the most beautiful way to enhance the appearance of one's home. Now that they are in, I will never remove them, even after my children grow up. As a home exchanger I am glad to have this safety feature available to protect my smallest guests. They also serve to remind me to mention to home exchangers that they must monitor their children on our terrace. Though the terrace is enclosed and serves as our dining room, a strong and industrious child could possibly manage to launch herself out of the top terrace windows, were they left open.
WATER
The most common hazard outside the city is a water feature. This could be a pool, a hot tub or even a natural body of water such as a pond or stream. Home exchangers who do not have a fence or cover limiting access to such water features must make it clear to their swap partners with children that they expect strict vigilance if the children have access to the outdoors.
WIND
We swapped with a couple from British Columbia. They wrote a rave review of our home. They really seemed to love every aspect of it. Except one. They complained bitterly about the strong wind they encountered when they entered our building. They seemed to feel we should have prepared them for this problem. Unfortunately, I had no idea what they were talking about. Since our exchange with them I have noticed that there are indeed a few windy days each year, but that is a normal part of living in a climate that has four seasons. Because they live in the Pacific Northwest they are familiar with a much milder climate. It would not have occurred to me to warn an exchanger that New York City gets cold in the wintertime.
INCONVENIENCE
Actually, the BC swappers I mentioned were annoyed by one other thing. They had a hard time figuring out how to use the building's laundry machines. We make it clear to all exchangers that most Manhattan apartment buildings forbid clothing washers or dryers inside individual apartments. We left a pre-paid card so they could do their laundry without having to pay. They later told us angrily that they did have to put money on the card because they had left it in the card reader while their laundry cycle ran and the machine had taken all the money off the card. Well duh. There are always other people doing their laundry in that room when it is open and I can guaranty that not one other person left a card sticking out of the machine. Ask someone or look around.
LET LOGIC BE YOUR GUIDE
You are responsible for telling people what to expect if they live in your home temporarily. You are not responsible for folks who don't understand that most of the northern United States has cold winter weather, or that pay-per-use machines are designed to take money off a card that is inserted into their card reader. With this in mind, let's look next time at the actual problem faced by Ruth, the reader whose question about what flaws to include in her listing launched the series on this topic.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
You can subscribe to this blog to receive each day's post. Just enter your email below :
No comments:
Post a Comment