In the US, it is the duty of landowners, as well as those who control, lease, or occupy real estate, to make sure that visitors are safe there.

In particular cases, the owner or the resident of the property may be held responsible for the damages if a guest suffers harm there. However, what would occur if there was a construction code violation on the land? Would this result in a case of premises liability? Contact a personal injury attorney in Queens to find out more about raising a claim in this situation. 

How can a building violation code be the basis for a premises liability case?

While some violations of the building code are minor and never pose significant hazards to public safety, some can be more serious. A premises liability lawsuit can be brought against the property owner or occupier if a building code violation leads you to get hurt.

A building violation can be utilized in two ways. First, owners and/or occupiers of property must take reasonable care to keep the property under their ownership or control in a reasonably safe way. This means that they have to take reasonable precautions to identify situations that could be hazardous and fix, replace, or provide adequate notice of anything that might be expected to cause harm to others. It can prove that the owner or occupant of the property failed to take reasonable steps to maintain it in a reasonably safe state if the property has a building code violation that results in an issue with security and leads to the harm you suffered.

Secondly, a claim of negligence per se can be based on a violation of the construction code. Assumption of negligence arises if the property owner/occupier broke the building code section, the violation resulted in your injury, the injury was one that the code section was meant to avoid, and you fall into the “class of persons for whose protection” the code section was adopted.

For example, if a child falls through railings that have vertical bars placed six inches apart, violating a section of the building code that requires that the gap between vertical bars on railings be no more than four inches, the landowner could be held accountable for negligence and/or negligence per se.

Contact an attorney

You must speak with an experienced personal injury lawyer if you suffered injuries on someone else’s property to determine whether you have a case. You may gather evidence to make a compelling case against the landlord or property owner with the help of an attorney.