Hurt in your apartment building? How to prove landlord liability

There are a number of drawbacks to renting an apartment (as opposed to owning a home). From a safety perspective, you have less control over the common areas of the building and the amenities inside your unit. You may not be allowed to make changes that you feel would greatly improve your safety and/or the beauty of your living space.

On the plus side, however, renting an apartment may give you some legal recourse if you suffer an injury as the result of landlord negligence. In today’s post, we’ll discuss a landlord’s duty to tenants and how you can demonstrate landlord liability after an accident.

In terms of property safety, your landlord must keep the building’s common areas (lobby, stairwells, etc.) safe and reasonably secure. They must also warn residents about hidden dangers in the building.

Generally, landlords cannot be held liable for injuries you suffer inside your own apartment. They can be held liable, however, if those injuries were caused by a hazardous condition which they failed to fix.

Whether the injury was suffered in your apartment or the building’s common areas, there are several things you need to demonstrate in order to prove landlord liability.

First of all, you need to show that you were injured as the result of a dangerous condition in the building that the landlord had a duty to fix. You also need to show that the landlord failed to make the repair despite knowing about the issue and having adequate time to do so.

You may also need to show that making the repair would not have been unreasonably difficult or expensive. Finally, you need to demonstrate that your injury was directly related to your landlord’s failure to fix the dangerous condition and that your injuries were thus foreseeable.

In many cases, it’s fairly easy to know when your injuries were the result of landlord negligence. But even if you aren’t sure, you might want to share your story with an experienced personal injury attorney who can assess your case and explain your rights and options.