What legal options might I have to protect myself against Airbnb guests trespassing on my property? Am I really responsible if they get hurt and sue?
I live in Alabama and I have a piece of property on a river with no house (burned down) but nice and very inviting dock, pier, boat (no key obviously) and kayak launch. The house next to me (no dock pier etc) has just out of nowhere became an air bnb this spring and every single guest has felt free to spend their days on my dock, likely their kids crawling all on the boat, leaving fish hooks etc. I put up a small wrought iron fence and no trespassing signs but based on a kayak left on my kayak ramp today obviously that has done no good. When I mentioned to property manager he just kinda shrugged and came and got the kayak.
If one of these people that are clearly trespassing on clearly marked private property slips and busts their head open and drowns I am told it’s possible I could be sued and held responsible for that. Is that true in Alabama and if so what can/should I do to remove that possibility? Obviously an empty lot isnt insured, the boat doesn’t have insurance (insurance cost more than the boat) and there’s no real way to make the boat inaccessible to access.
I’m nervous because people just let their kids run wild while they sit inside and get drunk, it’s almost inevitable some kid is going to get hurt or worse. The other day there was a kid probably 6 no life jacket standing and dancing around in a kayak and I asked her if she knew how to swim, she looked at me like she had never even heard the word before and there was no adult to be found.