As a tenant, you’d want nothing more than for your home to be a safe and welcoming space for both you and your visitors. However, accidents happen, and if your visitor gets injured while visiting your place, would your landlord be liable for the damages? Or are you going to shoulder the costs for their injury?
Premises liability law across states can be difficult to navigate. But when it comes to a landlord’s liability for injuries to a tenant’s visitor, there are two simple factors to consider:
Where and how did your visitor sustain the injury?
As a renter, you have the right to a habitable place to live; your landlord is responsible for this. However, a landlord’s duty may only cover the common areas throughout their rental premises. These common areas usually include parking spaces, the hallway, the stairs or other shared recreational spaces.
If your visitor got injured in any of these common areas, your landlord might be liable for the damages, especially if the injury happened because of your landlord’s negligence.
Is the injury due to your landlord’s negligence?
There are many instances in which landlords may be deemed negligent in their duty to keep their premises safe. Here are some examples:
- Poor maintenance: An example of this is if your landlord has kept delaying fixing a broken handrail on the stairway, and it leads to an accident that injures your guest.
- Dangerous conditions: If your visitor slips and falls because your landlord did not make any effort to remove fallen snow on the parking lot, they could be responsible for the dangerous condition.
- Negligent security: In some cases, your landlord could be liable if they fail to provide adequate security, like installing CCTV cameras, and your guest gets injured due to a criminal act like robbery in the area.
These are just examples, but the idea is that your landlord may be liable for your guest’s injury if the accident happened because the landlord failed to take reasonable steps to keep the area safe. Note that you’ll still need to provide proof of your landlord’s negligence if you wish to file a claim for your visitor’s injury.
Landlords have a duty to maintain a safe and habitable living environment for tenants and their guests. However, their liability is limited to areas that are under their control. As a tenant, it’s also important to maintain a safe living environment for your visitors and take prompt action in the event of an injury.