{"id":596,"date":"2012-11-27T23:57:22","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T23:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/?p=596"},"modified":"2012-11-28T00:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T00:00:01","slug":"property-owners-ask-what-is-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/property-owners-ask-what-is-liability\/","title":{"rendered":"Property Owners Ask, &#8216;What is Liability?&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/property-owners-ask-what-is-liability\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-598\" style=\"float: left; margin: 7px 7px 0px 0px;\" title=\"Property Owners Ask What Is Liability\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Property-Owners-Ask-What-Is-Liability-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Property Owners Ask What Is Liability\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Property-Owners-Ask-What-Is-Liability-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Property-Owners-Ask-What-Is-Liability-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Property-Owners-Ask-What-Is-Liability.jpg 414w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Liability is a big issue for any business.\u00a0 According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an overwhelming amount of individuals (over 1 million) suffer from injuries incurred from slip-and-fall accidents.\u00a0 Several of these people file liability lawsuits against property owners claiming compensation for hospital bills, other expenses pertaining to their accident, and their suffering.\u00a0 Liability is not an issue to be taken lightly.\u00a0 Property owners must take caution and try to diminish the amount of blame that could be placed upon them by potential plaintiffs.<\/p>\n<h2>Liability for Property Owners<\/h2>\n<p>Liability can be defined as the legal responsibility of entities or individuals regarding their acts or their omissions.\u00a0 Because it specifies that both acts and omissions \u2013 failure to act, despite knowledge \u2013 could be prosecuted, property owners have a duty to act should they be aware of safety issues and dangers within their property.<\/p>\n<p>Determining property owner liability is a tricky process.\u00a0 Many factors have to be considered carefully in order to assess the level of responsibility of the individual.\u00a0 One of these three events have to be true for the property owner to be liable for the accident in their premises (i):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The property owner or their employee created the dangerous situation, including but not limited to spills, worn or torn spots, and any other hazardous condition.<\/li>\n<li>The property owner or their employee knew about the potentially dangerous situation and did nothing to avoid the accident.<\/li>\n<li>The property owner and their employee should have \u201creasonably\u201d known and removed the condition of the surface before the accident.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Among the three, the last one is the most common claim against property owners.\u00a0 It is also the most difficult to prove.\u00a0 Several questions help determine whether or not the owner is liable in the third sense.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Has the damage been there long enough for the property owner to know about it, yet they didn\u2019t fix it?<\/li>\n<li>Does the property owner conduct regular inspections of his facility, and have employees to maintain it?\u00a0 Do they have documentation of these regular inspections?<\/li>\n<li>Did the property owner provide warnings and signs alerting visitors and staff regarding the problem?<\/li>\n<li>Was the area properly illuminated?<\/li>\n<li>Did the plaintiff fall out of their own carelessness?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Property Owners Must Be Proactive in Liability Prevention<\/h2>\n<p>Before any accidents and law suits could happen, it is in the best interest of Property owners to invest in proactive tools in order to avoid expensive settlements.\u00a0\u00a0 Limit property owner liability by encouraging managers and facility supervisors to take charge of building welfare at all times.\u00a0 It is important for owners to inform their staff about the importance of quickly settling potentially risky situations.<\/p>\n<p>Both property managers and owners need to examine the 3 checks (listed above) and actively try to prevent either one of the three from occurring.\u00a0 Routinely promoting safety will minimize hazardous situations as well as inciting staff to act quickly and decisively once they notice conditions that could potentially lead to accidents.<\/p>\n<h2>Assessing Your Property: Minimize Hazards to Limit Liability<\/h2>\n<p>There are many ways that property owners and their employees can reduce their liability in their facilities.\u00a0\u00a0 First, every member of the staff must be empowered to clean up spillage they caused immediately.\u00a0 Should the services of the maintenance crew be needed, it is best to stand closely to spill and warn visitors about its existence, and control the crowd to not pass through the wet spot.<\/p>\n<p>In store areas in which slippery conditions are expected to be norm, <a title=\"floor mats\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\">floor mats<\/a> with excellent traction and drainage must be laid out across the floor to prevent slipping by employees.<\/p>\n<p>Advise employees to report any potentially dangerous condition in the store.\u00a0 Try to fix the problem quickly, if it were possible.\u00a0 Should the problem require major repairs, close of the area as soon as possible, minimizing general public exposure to unsafe conditions.<\/p>\n<p>As much as possible conduct routine checks of all areas for broken or dangerous things.\u00a0 It is better to be overly cautious than to pay exorbitant settlement fees.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that property owners are responsible for providing and maintaining a secure and clean establishment.\u00a0 Improve store conditions by installing commercial floor mats.\u00a0 Trap moisture and debris, and promote safety in your property.\u00a0 Launder floor mats regularly to eliminate debris that have gathered during its use.\u00a0 Properly maintaining commercial floor mats increase their efficiency and prevents liability issue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources for this report include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(i) \u201cSlip and Fall Accidents: Proving Fault.\u201d Published on <a title=\"Nolo.com\" onclick=\"target='_blank'\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nolo.com\/legal-encyclopedia\/slip-fall-accidents-proving-fault-29845.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nolo.com<\/a>. Accessed November 20<sup>th<\/sup>, 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/property-owners-ask-what-is-liability\/\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eaglemat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/thumbnail-for-excerpts\/tfe_no_thumb.png\" class=\"alignleft wp-post-image tfe\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" \/><\/a><p>Liability is a big issue for any business.\u00a0 According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an overwhelming amount of individuals (over 1 million) suffer from injuries incurred from slip-and-fall accidents.\u00a0 Several of these people file liability lawsuits against property owners claiming compensation for hospital bills, other expenses pertaining to their accident, and their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[439],"tags":[5,436,438,262,806,803,432,433,434,437,435,431,261],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.6.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Property Owners Ask, &#039;What is Liability?&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read about property owner liability. 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