Can You Sue a Landlord When Their Negligence Causes Personal Injury?

Here’s how to seek compensation when you or your child have been injured in a rented house, apartment, or public housing complex.

More than 43 million American households live in rented homes. While many renters choose apartments, single-family homes make up nearly 40 percent of rental housing, including detached homes, townhomes, duplexes, and mobile homes.¹

If you’re a tenant who’s been injured due to landlord negligence, you have a right to expect compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

What Makes a Landlord Liable for Injuries

Rental properties are a business arrangement, and just like any other business owner, landlords are subject to premises liability laws, meaning they have a legal obligation to keep rental properties safe and habitable for tenants.

Whether you rent from a private individual or live in government-owned housing, you need to know how to build a strong personal injury claim against a negligent landlord.

Although landlords normally don’t have a duty to enter occupied rental units to look for dangers, they must respond to tenants’ notifications about dangerous conditions.

Landlords should resolve dangerous conditions promptly, especially when those conditions pose an imminent threat of injury to the tenant or visitors. Learn about the rules that landlords in your area must follow here: Landlord-Tenant State Laws and Regulations.

When a landlord violates their duty of care, they are negligent. When that negligence results in injury to a tenant, the tenant can pursue compensation for their damages.

Damages can include the tenants’ medical bills, out-of-pocket medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

To succeed in a personal injury claim against the landlord, a tenant must prove the landlord was negligent. The tenant must show that the landlord knew or should have known of a dangerous condition and failed to take reasonable steps to repair that condition.

The Landlord Needs Time to Make Repairs

When it comes to apartment complex common areas, the law gives a landlord a reasonable amount of time to discover a dangerous condition and repair it. Although landlords must make regular inspections of the common areas, like walkways, stairways, smoke detectors, and handrails, sometimes dangerous conditions appear suddenly.

It’s unfair to hold a landlord liable when they’ve done everything reasonably possible to discover and repair a dangerous condition on the property. The tenant may have a difficult time proving negligence against a conscientious landlord.

For example, if a shelf in the community fitness room suddenly broke and several weights fell off, injuring a tenant, the landlord might not be liable.

Presuming the shelf was holding the correct amount of weight, and the landlord made regular inspections of the fitness room, the landlord would not be expected to know of the danger or have a reasonable amount of time to replace the shelf.

On the other hand, if a tenant told the landlord the shelf had a crack and the landlord didn’t repair it for weeks, the landlord would be liable for not repairing the shelf. In this case, the landlord knew about the danger and failed to remedy it.

Automatic Landlord Liability

Sometimes a landlord is automatically liable for a tenant’s injuries. In certain cases, an injured tenant doesn’t have to prove the landlord knew or should have known about a dangerous condition. The mere existence of the dangerous condition is enough to prove the landlord’s responsibility.

For example, if a landlord rented an apartment with lead paint to tenants with young children, the landlord would be automatically negligent if a child suffered from lead poisoning.

Notifying the Landlord of a Hazard

In most cases, it’s up to you to prove negligence. You have to show that the landlord knew the dangerous condition existed and failed to address the condition promptly. This usually boils down to notification.

Check your lease: Your rental agreement should spell out when and how to notify the landlord of problems with your house or apartment. You may be required to communicate with a management company, rather than the property owner.

Written notification: Go ahead and make phone calls or send emails, but always follow up in writing. Take notes every time you call, including the date and time, the name of the person you spoke with, and what you discussed. Save printed copies of your emails, and any responses.

Although telephone calls and emails can get the ball rolling, a certified letter is the best way to prove the landlord knew about the problem. Your letter should detail the dangerous condition. Explain your concerns about the potential harm it may cause to you and others.

Send your letter certified mail, return receipt requested. Also, send a copy via regular mail. Keep copies of your letter and save the green receipt postcard when it comes back.

Unless the condition is so dangerous as to require immediate attention, give your landlord a reasonable amount of time to make repairs. Anywhere from a week to 30 days is usually enough.

State and County Landlord-Tenant Affairs

When you’ve notified your landlord of a problem, and the problem isn’t resolved in a reasonable amount of time, you can ask for help from local agencies.

Many states and counties have an Office of Landlord-Tenant Affairs (OLTA) to help both sides understand your rights as a tenant and the landlord’s obligations when it comes to rent payments, security deposits, property inspections, and maintaining the property in a safe and healthy condition.

Your state’s Attorney General’s Office may offer easy-to-understand information for tenants, and advice for handling safety issues.

Most large counties, especially in urban areas, have a robust OLTA with counselors who can help you file a complaint, and may have the authority to penalize a landlord who fails to follow the rules.

Help for Public Housing Issues

Residents in HUD and government-assisted housing can call the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line to get help with property management complaints, issues of health and safety, and to report property management fraud.

If you’re not a tenant, learn how to file a claim for injuries in a Government Housing Project.

If you can’t find safe and affordable housing, contact your local HUD agency for public housing assistance or information on housing choice vouchers.

Identify the Landlord’s Insurance Company

If you were hurt in a rented house, apartment building, or the common area of your housing complex because of the landlord’s failure to fix an unsafe condition, you’ll have to deal with your landlord’s insurance company. The problem is if your landlord hasn’t cooperated so far, there’s a good chance they’re not going to start now.

If that’s the case, and you want the name of the insurance company, you’ll have to get creative.

How to get the name of your landlord’s insurance company:

  1. Ask the landlord in writing via certified mail, or
  2. Go to the county property records department and find a copy of the deed to your rental property. If there’s a mortgage on the property, the bank requires the owner to carry property insurance. If you’re lucky, the name of the insurance company will be in the deed of trust.

Another way is to hire an attorney. Most attorneys know how to deal with landlord problems. The mere threat of a tenant suing a landlord for injury is often enough for the landlord to cooperate.

If your landlord still refuses to cooperate, your attorney may have to file a lawsuit against the landlord. Your attorney will then have the right to subpoena the name and address of the insurance company.

Proving Your Personal Injury Claim

Whether you make a claim with the property owner’s insurance company or file a lawsuit, you’ll need evidence to prove you were injured due to negligence.

Evidence can help you show:

  1. The landlord knew or should have known of the dangerous condition.
  2. The landlord had time to repair the danger but failed to do it.
  3. The dangerous condition was the direct cause of your injuries.
  4. You didn’t know the condition existed or couldn’t avoid it.

Photographs and videos: You can bolster your injury claim with photographic and video evidence. Taking multiple pictures of the dangerous condition is a graphic way to illustrate the danger as it first existed and as it worsens over time.

Witness statements: Family and friends make good witnesses, but neighbors and independent witnesses are the best. Witnesses who don’t have a personal or financial interest in the outcome of your claim are more credible to the insurance company.

Medical care: If you’re injured, you must seek medical care. Without medical proof linking your injury to the dangerous condition, your claim will fail. The sooner you seek treatment, the stronger the link between your injury and your landlord’s negligence. Tell every medical provider who treats you when, where, and how you were injured.

You’ll need copies of your medical records and bills to prove the extent and cost of your injury.

Attorneys Will Fight for Your Compensation

If you’ve identified the insurance company and have recovered from minor injuries, you can probably negotiate a fair settlement directly with the insurance company.

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

Send a written demand with copies of your medical records and bills, wage statement, photographs, and other evidence you’ve collected.

If you’re ready to file a personal injury case against your landlord and they won’t reveal their insurance company, or your claim is complicated, you’ll need an experienced personal injury attorney.

Complicated, expensive claims can include:

Insurance companies are notorious for offering lower settlements to claimants who are on their own. If you or your loved one have been injured due to a landlord’s negligence, you deserve fair compensation for those injuries.

Most law firms offer a free consultation to injury victims. If you decide to hire a personal injury lawyer, they typically agree to work on a contingency fee basis, meaning your lawyer only gets paid if they settle your claim or win your personal injury lawsuit in court.

Tenant Injury Claim Questions