Landlord Injury Claims: Understanding Your Rights and How to Hire a Landlord Negligence Lawyer

With over two-thirds of NYC residents renting their homes, landlord negligence claims in the city are increasingly common. Accidents in rental properties often result from unsafe conditions that landlords should have addressed.

In New York, landlords have a legal duty to maintain safe living environments for their tenants. When they fail to do so, tenants and their visitors have the option of suing the landlord for negligence and pursuing compensation for their injuries.

At the Law Office of Jeffrey K. Kestenbaum, we understand how landlord liability works and are here to protect your rights as your landlord negligence lawyer.

What Is Landlord Negligence?

Landlord negligence occurs when a rental property owner fails to maintain their building, resulting in a person being injured. This negligence can result from ignoring hazards, delaying repairs, or violating building safety codes.

Landlords aren’t automatically responsible for every accident that occurs on their property. However, they can be held liable if their actions, or their failure to act, directly cause or contribute to someone’s injuries.

Common Landlord Injury Cases

Many circumstances can lead to filing a landlord negligence claim and hiring a landlord negligence attorney. Here are some examples:

•  Slip and fall accidents in stairways and hallways
• Burns and electrocution from faulty building wiring
• Elevator malfunctions
• Ceiling collapses and falling debris
• Plumbing leaks that cause mold and structural damage
• Slippery and uneven flooring at entrances

Suing a Landlord for Negligence

Landlords in New York are required by law to provide safe, habitable conditions free from hazards. When they breach this duty, there may be justification for suing the landlord for negligence.

To pursue a successful claim, you must prove that the landlord knew a dangerous condition existed on their property or should have known about it. You must also prove that the landlord failed to address the issue and that this failure directly caused your injury.

What to Do After You’re Injured on a Rental Property

If you are injured due to unsafe conditions in a rental property, seek medical care immediately to take care of your health and to create a record of evidence for your case. If you are able, document the hazard with photos, videos, and written descriptions, gathering witness statements for backup support. Report your injury to your landlord or property management company in writing, and keep all written communication records to preserve the evidence.

Why You Need a Landlord Negligence Lawyer

Navigating landlord negligence claims is a complicated endeavor, especially when insurance companies and property owners deny responsibility. Fortunately, an experienced landlord negligence lawyer like Jeffrey K. Kestenbaum can help build a compelling case and advocate for your rights.

Compensation in Landlord Negligence Claims

If you are injured due to a landlord’s negligence, you could be entitled to compensation for your medical costs, rehabilitation costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, long-term disability, and reduced quality of life. Our law firm understands how unique every landlord injury case is and the range of compensation based on the severity of injuries and the extent of the landlord’s negligence.

Protect Your Rights, Hold Your Landlord Accountable

If you or a loved one has been injured because of hazardous conditions in a rental property, working with a NYC landlord negligence attorney can make a huge difference. Please contact us for more information about suing a landlord for negligence. We offer free case reviews 24/7, so call us at 718-237-5586 or fill out our online form.

Based right here in Brooklyn, we are the personal injury law firm you can trust after an accident. We’re committed to upholding justice in our community and holding negligent landlords accountable.

Although many residential buildings in New York City have elevators, others only have stairs because they are older structures. Meanwhile, tenants often take the stairs to stay in shape or because they don’t want to wait for slow elevators. Climbing stairs is great exercise, but it can also lead to serious stair injuries if the passageways are not properly maintained by the person in charge of the building.

Here’s what you need to know about stair injuries in NYC and when it’s time to call an attorney to bring a landlord to justice.

Types of Stair Injuries

Stair injuries commonly happen due to stairs that have become broken or worn down over time. They also occur because of broken handrails, poor lighting, ripped carpet covering the stairs, or slippery conditions due to wet weather.

Common injuries that result from a fall on stairs include concussions, broken bones, spinal cord injuries, back and neck injuries, and bruising. These injuries can be painful and expensive to pay for because of their long-lasting effects and ongoing treatment required.

Tenants may fall on stairs when they are in a hurry and rushing to get out the door, because they are intoxicated, or because they are scrolling on their phones and not paying attention to their surroundings. Contributory negligence is a factor when a person is partially (or even mostly) at fault for his or her own injuries. But in the state of New York, you can still pursue a successful case against a landlord if you share some of the blame for a staircase accident. If this is the situation, it is important to work with an experienced personal injury attorney to get the highest value settlement possible given the circumstances of your stair injuries.

When Is a Landlord at Fault for Stair Injuries?

A landlord may be held liable for your stair injuries if you can show that he or she was aware of the stairs’ dangerous condition and did not fix the condition or post warnings about the hazard. This is because landlords have a responsibility to their tenants to keep the premises safe.

This may require replacing flooring or carpeting, installing good lighting in stairways, placing functional handrails along the stairs, or putting up signs when stairs are slippery or undergoing repairs. Landlords also have a responsibility to keep stairways and other shared areas of their buildings compliant with building codes and local ordinances.

When to Hire an Attorney for Stair Injuries

At the Law Office of Jeffrey K. Kestenbaum, we help people after all kinds of slip and fall accidents, including falls at Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s, Home Depot, and grocery stores. Yet many of our clients come to us because of falls in their own apartments due to dangerous stairs and other hazards that should have been handled by landlords.

To learn more about what to do if you are involved in a slip and fall accident, please contact our office. We will walk you through the process of how to pursue a stair-related accident case against your landlord and the types of evidence that can best prove your case and win the settlement you deserve.

Our legal team is standing by 24/7 to help you during this challenging time, so give us a call at 718-237-5586.

Whether you live in an old or new rental house or apartment, the floors likely see a lot of wear and tear over the years. With multiple tenants coming and going, plus buildings that are getting older without receiving proper maintenance, it is very possible to suffer from a broken floor injury in your own home.

Read on to learn more about broken floor injuries and why you should contact a landlord negligence attorney if you have suffered because of a broken floor in one of your rooms.

Causes of Broken Floors

Broken floors are the cause of many slip and fall accidents in residential properties throughout New York City. Flooring can become loose and uneven over time due to poor construction, damage that a tenant has caused, or failure of a landlord to make reasonable repairs.

Cracked and peeling linoleum floors, bunched-up carpet, loose rugs, and poorly installed tiles can all cause broken floor injuries. You may also fall on a floor because of unlevel subflooring, split hardwood floors, and thresholds between rooms that are too wide or tall.

Types of Broken Floor Injury

You can be injured in many different ways because of a broken floor, depending on how you fall and the severity of the floor damage. You could sustain cuts and bruises because of your fall or even hit your head and have a concussion. Broken bones, torn ligaments, and spinal cord injuries can all result from an accident when you fall on a damaged floor.

Broken Floor Injuries Due to Landlord Negligence

If you live in a rental property and have a landlord, it’s important to know what he or she is legally required to provide to keep you safe. In addition to installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, securing your door with a lock, and having fire extinguishers available in common areas, landlords must also maintain a habitable building that is up to building code requirements.

As a tenant, it is your responsibility to notify your landlord when you see an issue with flooring so that he or she can address the problem. To pursue a lawsuit against your landlord for your injuries, you’ll need to be able to show that a dangerous flooring condition existed, that your landlord was aware of the condition and failed to acknowledge or repair it, and that this negligence caused you to be injured. However, if you caused your own flooring to become damaged and then were reckless and injured yourself because of that damage, it will be much more difficult, if not impractical, to pursue a case against your landlord.

Why Hire a Broken Floor Injury Attorney

There are many factors and nuances that go into bringing a landlord in New York City to justice because of a flooring issue in a rental space. At the Law Office of Jeffrey K. Kestenbaum, we have helped many tenants pursue these types of cases and be successful in receiving monetary compensation to help pay for their medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages from missed work.

We are experienced in all types of personal injury matters but are particularly experienced with broken floor injury cases where landlords are partially or fully to blame for incidents. We can help you determine whether you have a valid claim and who the negligent party is who caused your slip and fall. Contact us online or by phone at 718-237-5586 to tell us more about your flooring-related accident and for a free and confidential legal consultation.

You work hard to be able to buy things that you want and need, which is why it’s so frustrating when another person willfully and intentionally damages your personal property. Property damage can occur in many different circumstances, and some claims are considerably more difficult to prove in a court of law than others. Here’s a look at how to pursue a property damage claim in NYC and when it’s time to hire an experienced property damage lawyer.

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