A lot of people suffer injuries at their apartment complex. The harm caused by a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accident can be significant, too, leaving you with extensive losses that are physical, financial, and even emotional in nature. As a result, you might find yourself wondering what you can do to help offset your losses. Depending on the circumstances at hand, you might be able to file a premises liability lawsuit against your landlord.
When can you sue your landlord for injuries that you have suffered in your apartment?
Your landlord has a lot of obligations when it comes to ensuring that your apartment complex is safe. Generally speaking, the landlord has the responsibility to provide you with a property that is safe and appropriate for habitation. Therefore, issues from torn carpet, broken stair railings, mold, and bad electrical wiring may all give rise to a personal injury lawsuit.
But the law is a bit more nuanced than that. For example, your landlord will probably only be held liable if you can show that he knew about the dangerous property condition, failed to warn you about it, and the hazard wasn’t so obvious that you’d notice it. In order to uncover dangerous property conditions, your landlord should inspect your apartment before you move in.
Therefore, if you observe a hazard when you move in but don’t take action to inform your landlord to seek repairs, your landlord may escape liability if you end up injured as a result of that condition. If, however, you do report the dangerous condition to your landlord and he fails to act to correct it in a reasonable amount of time, he may be liable for any harm that you suffer as a result of that unremedied condition.
What about injuries that occur in common areas?
When it comes to common areas, your landlord has a duty to ensure that the premises are reasonably safe for their intended use. These areas include sidewalks, pools, stairways, landscaping, and the apartment’s office. Therefore, if sidewalks are broken, for example, and the landlord is aware of their dangerous condition and tenants aren’t warned of the hazard, the landlord may be liable if someone trips and is injured in a fall caused by the broken sidewalk.
What if your landlord had actually “corrected” the problem?
This happens all the time. The landlord identifies an issue or a tenant brings a hazardous condition to his attention, and then a repair is made. All too often, though, these repairs are inadequate. Either they were haphazardly made, or they were made incorrectly so that the problem re-presents itself pretty quickly. When this happens, you still might be able to hold the landlord labile for any injuries that you suffer on account of an inappropriate repair job.
Proving your premises liability case
Holding your landlord accountable may be more challenging than you think. You’re going to have to show that your landlord knew or should’ve known about a dangerous property condition and failed to warn you about it and/or repair it in a reasonable timeframe. When you pursue one of these cases, the landlord might try to argue that you’re responsible for the dangerous condition, thereby arguing that he shouldn’t be held liable.
It’s these kinds of issues that often warrant representation by a skilled legal advocate. One of these professionals can help you analyze the facts of your case so that you can develop the persuasive legal arguments that you need to advance your case. If that kind of representation interests you, now may be the time for you to reach out to an attorney for more information.
