Living in an apartment complex is often a popular option for many individuals due to its affordability, convenience, and numerous other amenities. When you sign a lease agreement, you are entrusting that the appropriate parties will take the necessary measures to remedy any unsafe property conditions to maintain a safe environment, preventing any accidents or injuries from occurring. Unfortunately, not all landlords uphold their legal duty to maintain reasonably safe premises. If you’ve been seriously injured as a result of your landlord’s negligence, you should enlist the help of a skilled New York City Apartment Accidents Lawyer who can help you fight to obtain the maximum compensation that you may be entitled to for your injuries.
Who could be held responsible for a slip-and-fall accident in an apartment building?
There’s nothing worse than suffering an injury in your own home. However, it’s not uncommon for accidents to happen when a landlord breaches their legal obligation to provide a safe environment for their tenants and guests. Sadly, apartment accidents usually occur through no fault of the tenant, as they commonly result from unsafe property conditions that the appropriate parties have not rectified. In New York, a landlord can be held liable for their negligence. Before holding them accountable and collecting compensation for your damages, you must fulfill the burden of proof. This means that you will have to prove to the court that your injuires directly resulted from the landlord’s negligence. It can be challenging to satisfy the burden of proof because you have to demonstrate the following:
- The landlord owed you a duty of care.
- The landlord knew or should have reasonably known about the dangerous property condition.
- The landlord breached their duty by failing to fix the unsafe property condition within a reasonable timeframe.
- The landlord’s breach of duty resulted in your injuries and damages
- If the landlord had remedied the hazardous property condition, you would not have sustained your injuires.
If you can establish these components, you should have a valid personal injury claim. However, you will need to collect substantial evidence to support your claim.
What evidence should I collect?
After a slip-and-fall accident in an apartment complex, you must collect as much evidence as possible to prove your claim. One of the best ways to establish a premises liability claim is by obtaining security footage of your accident, capturing photographs of the hazardous property condition that caused the accident, written reports, medical records, and contact information from any witnesses that corroborate your claim. If you did not report the accident, you should knock on your neighbor’s doors, as someone else may have written a complaint about the dangerous property condition that caused your injuries. This can help prove that your landlord left the unsafe property condition unattended for a substantial period, showing they were negligent.
Nevertheless, the best way to maximize your chances of recovering monetary compensation for your injuires is by retaining the legal services of an experienced lawyer from the Law Offices of Brian J. Elbaum, who can help investigate the circumstances of the slip-and-fall accident and gather pertinent evidence that may support your claim. Our firm is prepared to help you hold responsible parties accountable for their negligence.
