Can You Sue an Apartment Complex for Personal Injuries?

Your landlord must maintain your apartment building and grounds. See when the building owner is liable for a visitor or tenant’s injuries.

Good landlords conduct property inspections to identify dangerous conditions that might cause slip and fall accidents or other injuries. It’s in their interest to keep their rental properties safe for occupants and visitors.

Negligent landlords who don’t inspect their property and don’t fix hazardous conditions can be held responsible for injuries.

If you were hurt in an apartment, townhome, duplex, or the common area surrounding the property, you have a right to expect compensation. Here we discuss when you can sue an apartment complex for injuries.

When the Apartment Complex is Liable

Property owners have a legal duty of care to keep their rental units and common areas habitable and free of dangerous conditions. When a landlord fails to carry out regular inspections and make timely repairs to the property, they’re negligent.

When the landlord’s negligence results in injuries, they can be held legally responsible, or liable, for damages. Damages include the injured person’s medical bills, out-of-pocket expenses, lost wages, and emotional distress.

Unless you’re renting a unit owned by a government housing authority, your landlord should have a liability insurance policy covering the apartment complex.

Personal injury claims like slip and falls will usually be handled by the landlord’s insurance company. However, before the insurance company pays, it’s up to you to prove the landlord was to blame for the circumstances that caused your injury.

To prove an apartment owner or manager was liable, you have to show:

  1. They were aware or should have been aware of the dangerous condition.
  2. A sensible manager would know the dangerous condition could result in injuries.
  3. They failed to take reasonable steps to correct the dangerous condition or to warn people of the danger.
  4. Their negligence was the direct and proximate cause of your injuries.

Gathering Evidence to Support Your Claim

The stronger your evidence, the better your chances of winning an insurance claim. Proving your landlord knew about the dangerous condition in your apartment, townhome or duplex requires evidence.

In general, the more notice you’ve given your landlord ahead of an injury, the stronger your negligence claim will be.

Copies of notices: Make copies of emails, texts, and letters you sent to the landlord about the dangerous condition inside or outside your unit.

Keep a written diary of each time you called to ask for help, and what the owner or property manager said in response. Make sure you write down the name of the person you spoke with and the time and date. It might also help to get your phone records listing the calls.

Photographs and videos: Photographs are compelling evidence of dangerous conditions. You can’t have too many pictures.

If you tripped and fell on an exposed floorboard, take a ruler and place it next to the floorboard to show how many inches it sticks out above the rest of the floor. If insulated wiring shocked you, photograph the area of worn insulation first and then take a wider shot to show the rest of the wire.

Witness statements: Eyewitness testimony, especially from non-family members, can help prove a landlord’s negligence. Witness statements can document a dangerous condition before and after an injury occurs. With the permission of the witness, you can video their statement using your smartphone.

For example, while at the apartment complex playground, your child fell when the monkey bars broke in half. At the time, there were several other parents with their kids on the same playground. After photographing the broken monkey bars, ask each of the parents if they will write down what they saw.

Building code violations: Building code violations are strong evidence of negligence. You or your attorney can find out if the broken steps or railing, torn carpeting, or other unsafe conditions in your building violate state or local building codes.

Proof of damages: Seek medical care as soon as possible after an injury. You must have medical records and bills to file an injury claim or lawsuit.

Call 911 when necessary. If the paramedics think you should go to the emergency room, don’t refuse. If your injuries don’t require emergency care, seek medical attention from urgent care or your primary care provider as soon as possible.

The longer the delay between your injury and medical treatment, the harder it will be to prove your claim.

Landlord and Tenant Obligations

Renters and their landlords both have obligations to ensure the apartment complex is a safe and healthy place to live. Generally, the landlord should keep an eye on the common areas, and the tenant should watch out for problems inside their apartment.

Dangers in Apartment Complex Common Areas

Your landlord has an implied obligation to make regular inspections of the apartment complex common area. The common areas may include parking lots, sidewalks, lobbies and entrances, hallways, stairwells and handrails, community rooms, and swimming pools.

You don’t have to formally notify the landlord of dangerous conditions outside of your apartment. It’s not your responsibility to make inspections of the property and send written notices to the landlord every time you find a hazard in a common area.

Example: Slip and Fall on Icy sidewalk

It’s the middle of winter. A sprinkler head in your complex broke weeks ago. Each day, water leaks all over the sidewalk, making it dangerously icy. While coming home one evening, you slipped and fell, breaking your arm.

In this situation, the landlord was negligent for not regularly inspecting the sprinkler heads and walkways.

Dangerous Conditions Inside a Rental Unit  

Although the landlord has a duty to make regular inspections of the property, it doesn’t include entering your apartment on a regular basis to inspect for dangerous conditions. That’s impractical and an invasion of your privacy.

Renters have an obligation to notify the landlord of problems or hazards inside their unit. Your lease should specify how and where to report problems in your apartment. You may need to contact a management company handling the property rather than the owner.

Once you’ve reported the problem, the landlord or management company should promptly resolve the situation.

Example: Landlord Liable for Broken Shower Door

The shower door in Kathy’s apartment broke a while ago. It won’t stay closed because the latch is broken. On several occasions, the shower door has smacked into her leg, scraping it.

The landlord knew about the broken shower door because Kathy called, sent several emails, and wrote letters asking the landlord to make the necessary repairs. Her communications were ignored.

One day the shower door swung open abruptly, cutting into Kathy’s leg causing a gaping wound. Kathy needed stitches, crutches, antibiotics, and a tetanus shot. She also missed several days from work.

Kathy would not have been hurt if not for the broken shower door. The landlord is therefore responsible for her damages.

Renter’s Insurance Basics

Renter’s insurance will help cover the cost of your clothing, furniture, and other personal items if they are lost or damaged in a fire or other covered event.

Similar to homeowner’s insurance, renter’s insurance won’t cover injuries to the tenant or members of the tenant’s household, but it will cover injuries to guests in the apartment if the tenant is to blame for what happened.

The landlord is also responsible for injuries to a guest or visitor if the circumstances leading to the injury are the landlord’s fault.

Injuries to renters and their guests that happen inside the tenant’s apartment are more difficult to blame on the landlord. Often, the tenant is at least partially to blame.

Example: Renter at Fault for Guest’s Slip and Fall Injury

Steve had lived in his apartment for a few months when a pipe began to leak under the bathroom sink. He kept meaning to report it to the landlord, but never got around to it. In the meantime, he stuck a plastic bowl under the dripping pipe.

One evening, Steve had a few friends over for pizza. When Sharon, one of his guests, walked into the bathroom, she slipped and fell on a puddle of water, cracking her face against the marble sink counter. The bowl under the leaking pipe had overflowed onto the bathroom floor.

Since the landlord wasn’t aware of the leaking pipe, the landlord was not responsible for Sharon’s injuries. Steve should have known the leaking pipe could eventually lead to water on the floor. Steve was responsible for Sharon’s injuries and pain and suffering.

Attorneys Can Boost Compensation

If you’ve recovered from minor injuries, you may decide to handle your own claim with the insurance company. You still have the right to seek legal advice from a personal injury lawyer at any point in the negotiations process.

Figure out your compensation by totaling your medical bills, out-of-pocket expenses, and lost wages. Then, add one or two times that amount for pain and suffering.

Send a written demand with your proof of damages. You can use our sample apartment injury demand letter as a guide.

Serious injuries and wrongful death cases are best handled by an experienced premises liability attorney. Insurance companies almost always offer lower settlements for high-dollar claims when the claimant is not represented by an attorney.

Most law firms offer a free consultation to injury victims. If you or a loved one have been badly injured because of a landlord’s negligence, you deserve fair compensation. It costs nothing to find out what a good personal injury attorney can do for you.

Apartment Injury Claim Questions