An accident in your home: Occupier’s Liability With Trove Easton of Easton Lawyers, Maleny

An accident causing someone injury 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 that your visitor has been warned of the danger then this would be suffi cient 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, the injuries occurred as a result of the landlord’s failure to repair defects and the landlord knew of the defects.

Take care everyone! Easton Lawyers

07 5494 3511

Monday to Friday between 08:30 and 17:00 AEST.

Trove Easton Easton Lawyers

Web Address: http://eastonlawyers.com.au/

Landsborough Rail Station Car Park Opened

The Landsborough Rail Station Park ‘n’ Ride facility is now officially opened. It has been available to the public since Monday August 14th.

This facility provides an extra 300 car spaces. This area is expected to meet forecast demand and reduce demand on the limited on-street parking near the stations

This upgrade which includes a new bus interchange for coastal areas is part of the Beerburrum to Nambour Rail Upgrade project.

Hinterland buses will operate as present.