Tove Easton of Easton Lawyers
An accident causing injury to someone in your home does not necessarily mean that you, as the occupier, is liable for that injury. As an occupier you are only liable if an accident is caused by your failure to take ‘reasonable care’ to protect the person being injured.
The key words are ‘reasonable care’. As you may have suspected already there is no hard and fast rule about what amounts to ‘reasonable care’ or lack of such care. It depends very much on the nature of the premises, the type of danger and the reason for entry. An example is a defective staircase in a house would be a danger to most people, but would not be a danger to the tradesperson engaged to fix the staircase.
You may think that provided your visitor has been warned of the danger then this would be sufficient to protect you from liability. However a warning is not always sufficient to protect you from liability. The occupier’s duty is to take ‘reasonable care’ to protect your visitor from danger – not simply to warn your visitor of the danger. Sometimes a warning may be sufficient but other times not depending on the type of danger.
What of a person who enters your premises without your permission – a trespasser? The law holds that if you know or you have reason to suspect that a trespasser is on your premises, you have a duty to that trespasser to take reasonable care to protect that person from injury. This duty does vary depending on the circumstances. An example here would be the requirement on you to fence a pool to prevent a child trespasser from being injured or drowned.
Finally, a landlord has a statutory duty, under the Residential Tenancies Act (Qld) 1994, to keep premises in good order and repair. A landlord may be liable if a tenant is injured on the premises, if the injuries occurred as a result of the landlord’s failure to repair defects and the landlord knew of the defects.
Tove Easton, Principal Lawyer, Easton Lawyers
62 Maple Street, Maleny; Ph 5494 3511
6b/3 Obi Obi Road, Mapleton; Ph 5478 6500
tove@eastonlawyers.com.au
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