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We do have modification clause in lease, the tenants have been notified and they did immediately cut the power and will remove fence. Since its storming we are giving them til the weekend to remove it, with the condition the power stays off. If they don't comply and since this isn't their first breach of the lease they might just be looking for a new place sooner than the end of their lease.
I grew up around livestock fences and no danger unless you wear a pacemaker...
That said, most residential areas and HOA forbid them.
I currently have one at my home on a timer/sensor... sundown to sun up because the critters have been bad this year and some tested positive of rabies... guess they are bold because of the California drought.
I've had horses just about my entire life and been shocked more times then I can count...never did more then give me a jolt.
That's the point - humans getting a jolt or becoming conductors. Doesn't matter if it's a step above a static charge or putting a person on his/her butt. Depending on the current running through, not even being in contact with it can make a person a conductor. Found that out the hard way when I was petting a horse. My arm was an inch above the wire, but the current went through me and painfully shocked the horse. What if I had been holding a child's hand?
As kids... young kids like 4 and 5 years of age we would have contest to see which one of us could hold onto the wire the longest on the farm... the hot wire was to keep cattle in.
All of us lived and we laugh about it today...
Barefoot kids standing in field holding onto a cattle grade hot wire...
Could just be a difference in upbringing... city vs country?
I had electric fences for farm animals and the shock you can get won't kill you. It would have to be a really bizarre situation for there to be any real damage to anyone.
I don't understand being so angry with a tenant who is trying to be responsible by keeping animals in, etc. And I'm really surprised you'd lose your insurance over an electric fence in a rural area.
What are these other lease modifications? Are they improvements? Do they do damage? I don't know, but I just get the sense you're kind of being a control freak. Do you really want to look for new tenants and deal with the cost involved in turning over the rental? Or do you want to keep a tenant who obviously was intending to stay? Which they probably are no longer thinking.
Just sayin'. If it was me, I'd have been thrilled to see a tenant who looks like they intend to stay - and are making sure their animals stay inside the property. They're treating the place like home, and that's a good thing, usually.
Personally I'm ok with them, but as a landlord I'm not ok with the liability.
At my job I've seen some of the guys do some silly/stupid things around the electric fences, and yes they are funny. They live to tell, and they have provided lots of laughs over the years. But in this day and age of lawsuit happy folks it's better safe than sorry.
Maybe there is a solution other than them removing the fence, but I equate it to the Marijuana laws here, I just don't want to deal with it and No is a simple solution. We've actually had people want to grow crops at the rental house. It's on 3 acres so I can see the appeal.
Each year city where I live, Oakland California, brings in goats to graze the parkland and open space for fire control... this is city owned land in a city with a population of 400,000+.
Guess what... the goats are contained by temporary electric fences around where children and animals play... as the goats move on the fence goes with them.
As I mentioned before... the only warnings I come across have been for those with pacemakers... and then you have the same warnings around Microwaves and Airport Security...
I can't forbid a family from having a companion/service animal... I can't prevent the opening of a licensed daycare with all that entails... like toddlers crawling around the premises and all the trips up and down the steps picking up and dropping off kids... and I have very little to say about Medical Marijuana... I can't say no children or impose an occupancy limit less than 2 per bedroom plus 1...
I'm not OK with it... yet, the law trumps.
That said... I have never managed rentals in Colorado so all I have is opinion...
One option that might work, is to put the electric fence inside the fence area. You can buy these extender insulators that go onto the fence posts that hold the electric wire inside the fence area. There are different types like nail-on ones for wooden posts, or clip-on ones for metal t-posts. They help keep the fence in shape, by keeping the livestock away from the fence. I had a horse and pigs. For the horse, the wire was at the top of the fence - to keep him from leaning over it and stretching it out. For the pigs, down low to keep them from digging under it.
Of course, if the insurance won't let you do even that, then it will have to go. What a shame.
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