Landlords are responsible for the safety of their tenants in California. If you are hurt in your apartment or around the complex due to a property management company’s negligence, you can seek help with the costs of your recovery.
To find out how to hold owners and operators fully liable, you can speak with a real lawyer at Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers of Bakersfield in a FREE CASE CONSULTATION. There’s no obligation for your meeting. It’s a simple way to figure out what your landlord is responsible for and how to hold insurers fully accountable for your pain.
Do I Need a Lawyer After Getting Hurt at My Apartment Complex?
If your injuries are only minor, you may not need a lawyer’s help. But if your injuries end up being serious, with higher medical bills, and a landlord’s carelessness is to blame, it’s a good idea to speak to a Bakersfield Premises Liability Lawyer.
Rising hospital bills make commercial liability insurance companies worry, and that can lead adjusters to look for ways to blame your accident on you. They’ll also seek to raise doubts about how bad your wounds are, simply as a reason to offer you less in support. In some cases, a residential ownership group can also bring in its own team of lawyers to push back on your claim. You’ll want your own skilled legal representative protecting your case.
Your lawyer investigates what happened, collecting evidence along the way, to shut these insurance tactics down. Your lawyer then demands the maximum in value for your injury claim. This is often much more than you could hope to win by taking on a property management company yourself.
Who Is Responsible If My Family Member Gets Hurt at an Apartment Complex?
Business owners and property owners are liable for accidents they could have taken action to prevent. This might involve a stairwell with a rotting handrail that should have been fixed before your child suffered a fall. It might apply to an injury suffered in a trip-and-fall around a public pool, where apartment staff failed to clear debris that another resident left behind.
According to California premises liability laws, landlords must be careful not to create hazards that could harm a tenant. They must not put off repairs to rotting decks or crumbling walkways. The apartment staff must monitor the grounds and parking lots for the accident risks and messes that other residents leave behind.
According to California Civil Code 1714., when property management companies fail in this duty, and someone gets hurt, victims can seek help with all of their recovery costs.
Of course, the matter goes to the owner’s insurance provider, and insurance companies don’t always make it easy for victims to get help rebuilding their lives. Victims sometimes need legal assistance to put pressure on insurers to accept blame.
It’s also a matter of how much victims receive. Insurers may only want to cover a trip to the emergency room. A skilled attorney also demands support to cover any care that may be ongoing for the victim, including future needs like surgeries and physical therapy.
Apartment Complex Accident Dangers
Any slip-and-fall at a residential property can send victims to the emergency room like the one at Mercy Hospital. But there are many other accident risks that can pop up at an apartment complex or condo community.
- Slip-And-Falls on puddles and other slick spots
- Trip-And-Falls on trash and construction debris that goes uncollected
- Stairwell hazards involving rotting steps and broken handrails
- Exposed wiring
- Negligent security when residents aren’t protected from crime in unsafe apartment complexes
- Pool hazards like slippery surfaces and a lack of barriers to keep children out after hours
- Dog bite injuries leave landlords accountable if they don’t heed complaints about a resident with a dangerous animal (dog owners are usually liable for bite incidents, too)
- Exposure to harmful chemicals used in cleaning or in pool maintenance
- Unsecured windows that allow children to fall
- A gas leak or Carbon Monoxide issue in your apartment
In some cases, there may be several parties responsible for the accident that left you injured. It’s critical to allow a lawyer to go over your case so that a claim is filed against every liable party. This gives you the best chance to cover all of your medical bills and lost income.
Support for Premises Liability Victims
One key to successfully holding an insurance company responsible is the careful documentation of every hardship you’ve been through. A list should be made of all the economic harm that was caused by the accident, and all of the emotional trauma you’ve been left with.
Your lawyer helps you make this list and then submits it in an insurance claim. No damage can go unmentioned, because that means insurance adjusters are within their legal right to ignore it…meaning you receive no support for what’s left off.
That’s unacceptable to Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers. We demand these and other benefits for our clients.
- Support to cover all of your current medical bills, your physical therapy costs, and all medical equipment, and those costs expected in the future.
- Support for a lifetime if your injuries result in a permanent disability.
- Support for the back or neck pain you experience, and also any discomfort from broken bones or head injuries suffered. If your pain continues for months or years, the support needs to be more substantial.
- Support for the emotional trauma you experience after a scary accident and a difficult recovery. This can include the loss of enjoyment of life, which you may have to cope with if you must be off your feet. You may have to give up hobbies you love and participation in family activities.
- Support to replace the job income and benefits you have to go without while you are in injury recovery.
- Support to cover the costs of travel to make doctor’s appointments and to see out-of-town specialists. An escalating cost if you are in a wheelchair or on crutches.
Contact a Premises Liability Attorney Who Backs Your Claim with Evidence and Fights to Earn You More
If you have a serious injury, and a negligent landlord contributed to your accident, contact Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers of Bakersfield to schedule a free consultation. It’s a confidential, no-obligation review of your case with a real premises liability accident lawyer.
If you need our help, there are no worries about how you’ll pay a lawyer. We will sign a contingency agreement with you when you officially hire us. It means we cover all upfront case costs. We also don’t earn anything unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement money that an insurance company must pay out to you and your family.