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The legal code makes this fact clear: If someone owns any piece of property in Ontario, then he or she must perform certain essential duties. That property owner must complete all necessary maintenance and repair work. At the same time, that owner’s job includes the posting of warnings, whenever a guest needs to be alerted to some potential danger.
Personal Injury Lawyer in Barrie know that owners’ that fail to carry out those specific duties can get sued, if a guest gets injured, while on that poorly-maintained property. Still, there are certain times when a guest cannot sue the owner of a piece of property, even after being injured at that same location. There are times when an injured guest cannot take legal action against the person that owns the land or location on which the same guest sustained an injury:
• If the guest got hurt while engaged in a criminal activity.
• If the guest’s injury resulted from an instance of trespassing. It should be noted that even when a guest has permission to step onto someone else’s land/property, the owner’s liability is limited.
• If the guest’s entry onto that particular location had not been preceded by payment of an entrance fee.
Further significance of a fee:
Someone that pays an entry fee assumes all of the risks normally associated with the planned activity. On the other hand, someone that pays the entry fee does not assume the risks that might be created by poor maintenance of a facility, or of its equipment. Places where a guest pays no fee and assumes a recognized risk:
• Joining skaters on a frozen pond;
• Taking part in x-county skiing event;
• Electing to snowboard on an unsupervised slope;
• Taking a hike in the forest;
• Riding a snowmobile on a forest trail, or on land without a trail;
• Tobogganing on an unsupervised slope.
Someone that has assumed a risk, either by taking part in risky activity, or by enjoying that same activity in an unsafe area, lacks grounds for suing the property owner, if he or she were to get injured.
Times when someone could pay a fee of some sort and still face a recognized risk:
• When someone pays to use an old and unsafe ice rink.
• When someone goes skiing at a ski lodge without obtaining good-quality equipment.
• When someone pays to be part of a snowshoe hike, but does not purchase good-quality snow shoes.
• When someone rents a snowmobile but fails to stay on the marked pathways, those designated for snowmobile users.
In other words, there are times when you can sue, after being injured on a recreational facility, and other times when you cannot sue. The above list provides a glimpse of times when you cannot sue.