Slip, Trip and Fall Hazards
on Rental Property

Landlords may be at risk for personal injury claims that result from slip, trip and fall hazards on their rental properties. They may be held legally responsible for "premises liability" claims that result from slip and fall injuries suffered by a tenant or third party.

The law determines if the landlord or property owner took reasonable precautions to keep the property safe from slip, trip and fall hazards. So it certainly pays to be vigilant against slip and fall hazards on your property.

Overview of Slip, Trip and Fall Accidents

A slip takes place when a person's feet suddenly move out from underneath them and their body (center of gravity) either falls backwards or straight to the ground. A trip occurs during a person's gait when the forward motion of their foot suddenly stops, causing the forward momentum of their body to topple them over and fall forward.

The term "slip and fall" is used to describe a case when a person slips, trips and falls and is injured on another person's property.

Slips, trips and falls can be caused by many dangerous conditions. Inside a building, these could include wet floors, abrupt changes in floor elevations, poor lighting, broken or missing stair railings, torn carpets, or defective stairs.

Outside the building, dangerous conditions include broken and uneven sidewalks, potholes or depressions in the ground, surfaces covered by ice or snow, and faulty stairs and hand railings. Of special concern on the premises are trip and fall hazards from sidewalks that crack and become uneven due to uplifting from tree roots and frost heaves.

Proving Responsibility for Slip and Fall Injuries

If a tenant or third party suffers a slip and fall injury on your rental property, there are no "black and white" or precise rules that can be applied to determine fault. This is because every case is different based on the particular circumstances involved.

However, the final verdict of each case depends on whether the landlord acted reasonably and carefully to prevent the likely occurrence of the slip and fall accident. In addition, the law also looks at how careless or negligent the tenant was in not recognizing or avoiding the condition (the slip, trip and fall hazards) that caused the fall injury.

Generally, the person suffering injury in a slip and fall must prove that the cause of their injury resulted from a hazardous condition, and that the landlord or property owner was aware of the hazardous condition. A condition is hazardous if it creates an unreasonable risk of injury to any person on the property, and it must also be a condition that any person should not expect or anticipate under the given circumstances. People are responsible to be aware of, and avoid, any obvious dangers.

The following rules are applied to determine if a landlord or property owner was aware of the hazardous condition;

• The landlord or owner created the condition,

• The landlord or owner was aware that the condition existed and did nothing to correct it (i.e., was negligent), and

• The hazardous condition existed for such a period of time that the landlord or owner should have discovered and corrected it before the slip and fall accident happened.

A tenant or third party can also prove that the landlord or property owner was negligent by violating a relevant building code statute. An example would be a tenant who falls down a stairway because there were no handrails, and the lack of handrails caused the fall. This may certainly be a strong liability claim against the landlord based on the applicable building code violation.

When Residential Landlords are Liable for Tenant Slip and Fall Injuries

Residential landlords could be responsible for anyone (tenants and third parties) who becomes injured due to slip, trip and fall hazards on their rental property. In order to hold a landlord liable for an injury, the tenant or third party must prove that the landlord:

• Had control of the condition that caused the slip and fall injury,

• It was foreseeable that not fixing the hazardous condition would result in an injury,

• Removing or repairing the condition would not have been unreasonably difficult or expensive, and

• The landlord's negligence of failing to take reasonable steps to correct the dangerous condition and avoid an accident resulted in the tenant's slip and fall injury.

Slip and fall accidents can also be the result of the injured party's own carelessness. In legal terms, this is referred to as "contributory negligence". An example would be if a tenant or third party trips and falls simply because they weren't looking where they were walking.

In this case, the injured person would not be able to recover damages against the landlord if the landlord did not contribute in any way to the accident, no matter how serious the injury may be. However, if the injured party is only partly responsible for their injury, then he or she may be entitled to recover partial damages from the landlord or property owner based on the percentage of contributory negligence.

And remember, obtain legal advice from an attorney regarding any injury by a tenant or third party that takes place on the premises of your rental property.

For more in-depth information about slip, trip and fall hazards and how to prevent them, please visit The Landlord's Library book collection. It's a terrific, one-stop source for practical, comprehensive information on the entire subject of residential landlording.

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