When Could An Injured Tenant Sue The Landlord?

If a landlord’s actions, or failure to take the proper action, had caused the tenant’s injury, then the tenant would have a right to sue the landlord.

The landlord’s actions have to be a proximate cause of the injury.

Landlords could take certain positive steps, in order to prevent an injury. The scheduling of regular inspections would qualify as such a step. Consequently, the absence of such inspections might be seen as something that could contribute to the increased likelihood of an accident.

Lack of action would be illustrative of negligent behavior.

The longer a landlord has delayed with performance of promised action, the stronger the exemplification of negligence. Still, if some type of warning had been put in place, following issuance of the landlord’s promise to act, then the placement of that same warning would weaken any possible charge of negligence.

Obligations placed on landlords, in order to limit number of tenants’ injuries

Injury Lawyer in Barrie know that landlords must watch for the presence of any condition or object that could pose a danger to children.

—The lack of some type of fencing around a swimming pool would qualify as such a condition.
—The ready availability of pointed darts in a playroom with a dartboard could be viewed as a dangerous condition.
—A concrete surface on a playground would increase chances for an injury, if a child were to fall, while enjoying the equipment on that same playground.

A landlord’s violation of certain rules could lead to a charge of negligence per se.

If an injured tenant were to allege commission of negligence per se, then a court would need to study the nature of the rule that the landlord had violated. Had that violated rule been one that was supposed to prevent the type of harm that had befallen the tenant? If so, then the landlord’s action had, indeed been negligence per se.

There are also times when landlords can be sued for violation of habitability regulations. Tenants might want to keep that fact in mind if any of the following were to take place:

—The apartment’s air conditioning fails during a summer heat wave. Those living in the apartments must swelter for several weeks, even after making numerous complaints.
—Some bees build a nest in the patio area of one apartment on the first floor. All tenants are asked to clean their patios and balconies. The person with the bee-infested patio complains, but nothing is done until 2 days before the scheduled inspection. A landlord’s notice ignores delivery to the landlord’s office of a report. It was a report about a bee sting, one on a tenant’s hand, as a result of effort at cleaning the patio.