Keep Your Home Safe So You Don’t Get Sued – And So People Aren’t Injured

When it comes to keeping people safe, it’s not just businesses that have to take measures to keep the public safe. You have that responsibility also, when people come into your home. You may not know this, but you can be sued just as a commercial property can be sued, if there is a dangerous condition on your property that ends up causing injury to someone else.

But you aren’t a business, you don’t have training or expertise in property management, and you may feel like you have no idea what to do, to make sure you don’t get sued for injuring other people. The good news is that there are a few tips to follow, which are mostly common sense.

Fix What’s Broken

It is common for people to let minor, nagging or small defects in their home remain. They know about the defects and avoid them, and they will get around to fixing them. If a floor tile is loose, you know to step over it. If a stairway handrail is shaky, you know it and can adapt to it. If there is a small leak by the bathtub you know it and keep from skipping.

The problem is that your guests do not know these things–and when they fall over or are injured by those small, seemingly minor problems, you could end up the Defendant in an injury lawsuit.

Barriers and Notices

You can get some guidance from commercial properties and stores. One thing stores do, that you can emulate, is simply to alert people of dangerous conditions, if they can’t be immediately fixed. You don’t need anything fancy. A sign, or a rope or a cone, or something similar, altering people to the fact that an area is dangerous, is enough.

Pick Stuff Up

It’s natural that in the chaos of life, some items end up on the floor, or don’t get picked up as quickly as they should. This is especially true if you have children in the house.  But a small, random toy or other object on the floor, can be a real fall hazard-especially for older people. Try as best you can to pick up items from the floor.

Supervision

If you have kids they will likely have other kids over. Often, there are more kids than the adults in the home can safely monitor. Many lawsuits involving homes start when children injure themselves, fight, or otherwise do something that they shouldn’t have been allowed to do.

That usually happens when there is no, or not enough, adult supervision. Never have more kids than you can reasonably supervise over your home, and always keep an eye on the kids, especially younger ones.

If you were injured by a dangerous condition inside someone’s home, we can help you get the compensation you may need. Contact our Rhode Island personal injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help.

Source:

iii.org/article/what-covered-standard-homeowners-policy#:~:text=been%20poorly%20maintained.-,Liability%20protection,expensive%20rug%2C%20you%20are%20covered.