Legal Rights for Injuries Sustained in a Rental Property

Your home is your castle, whether you own or rent it. You expect to be safe in your home from dangers both inside and out. So when reality doesn’t live up to your expectations, what are your options? What can you do when you are injured, through no fault of your own, at your rental property in Texas? Suffering a rental property injury doesn’t have to be devastating to your future. Here is what you need to know about your rights after sustaining an injury at a rented property.

Were you injured at your rental property due to the negligence of your landlord? You may be able to get compensation for the harm you suffered. Contact the experienced legal team at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law at (713) 973-8888 or toll-free 1 (800) 444-5000 for a free consultation, and learn how we can protect your rights after an injury on rented property.

Your Tenant Injury Legal Rights

In Texas, your landlord has several responsibilities. One of their most important responsibilities is to ensure the safety of all tenants and visitors to their rental properties. This means that they are required to maintain an environment where you are unlikely to get injured as you engage in everyday activities. If your landlord fails to live up to this responsibility and you get injured due to their negligence, you can file a premises liability claim against your landlord for compensation for the harm you suffered.

Typical ways that a landlord will fulfill this responsibility include:

• Ensuring all doors and windows have effective and functioning locks
• Properly placing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
• Advising you of any uncorrectable, known hazards like lead-based paint on the walls
• Complying with local and state building codes and safety regulations
• Installing security cameras or hiring security guards to protect the property
• Making repairs promptly when building damage presents a danger to residents.

Failing to make appropriate repairs often serves as the grounds for a premises liability lawsuit against landlords. Building repairs can get expensive, and many landlords try to avoid unnecessary costs. However, in doing so, they are taking a risk. For example, if you report a loose railing to your landlord and they delay repairing it, they could be held liable if you slipped and fell because of that unrepaired railing.

One of the most common reasons that a tenant suffers an injury due to landlord negligence is that the landlord fails to perform required repairs on their rental property.

To determine whether a landlord’s failure to repair your rental property was negligent, your lawyer may consider the following elements:

• Was your landlord aware of the damage, or should they have been aware?
• Did they fail to take any action to correct or mitigate the damage?
• Were your injuries caused by the unrepaired portion of the property?
• Did you suffer a significant financial loss from those injuries?

If each of those questions is answered in the affirmative, you may have a case.

What to Do After Suffering a Rental Property Injury

If you have suffered an injury at your rented property, your ability to get compensation for the harm you suffered often depends on the actions you take immediately after getting hurt. While you have legal rights, you may have limited access to enforcement mechanisms of those rights. You shouldn’t assume that your landlord or their insurance company will help you automatically.

The steps that you should take to best protect your rights include getting medical attention, documenting evidence, and contacting a lawyer.

Get Immediate Medical Attention

Even if you think you suffered a relatively minor injury, you should get medical attention as soon as possible. Slip and fall injuries, in particular, can be more serious than you realize, especially if you suffer a back or head injury. But any type of injury can be worse than it immediately appears, and if you did suffer a serious injury, any delay in getting medical attention can result in the injury getting worse.

Furthermore, by getting medical attention, you create a record of your injury. Your lawyer can use this record to prove the severity of your injuries and when they occurred.

Document Everything

A single medical record isn’t the only evidence you will need to win a lawsuit against your landlord, though. After suffering an injury, you want to document everything that happened in case that evidence is necessary to support your claim at trial or in settlement negotiations.

This means you should take pictures of what caused your injury and your injuries, if possible. It’s also important to preserve any medical records and bills associated with your injury. If you previously advised your landlord of a danger that they ignored, hopefully, you advised them in writing and preserved a copy of that correspondence.

Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer

Time is critical after suffering any type of personal injury. In Texas, you typically have 2 years to act. (*Always speak directly to an attorney for the exact deadlines that apply to your potential claims.) If you wait longer than that, the statute of limitations can prevent you from filing a lawsuit. However, the statute of limitations isn’t the only time constraint you need to worry about. Other critical deadlines may apply.

A key to winning a personal injury claim is offering superior evidence of the other party’s negligence than they can provide of their innocence. But evidence can get increasingly difficult to acquire the longer you wait to start collecting it. This means you want a professional to investigate your claim as soon as possible.

At Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law, we start investigating your claim from the moment you bring it to us. We understand how important it is to act quickly. This efficiency not only helps preserve evidence, but it can also potentially get you compensation faster.

How a Lawyer Can Help After You Suffer a Landlord Negligence Injury

An experienced premises liability lawyer can help in several ways after you suffer an injury due to landlord negligence. Investigating your claim and preserving evidence is only one of many ways we can assist.

Representation While You Are Incapacitated

If you are seeking a lawyer after suffering an injury in your rented home or apartment, you likely sustained serious injuries. This may mean that you are confined to a hospital, a bed, or your home. Even if not confined, the severity of your injuries may make it impossible to work or even concentrate on things for extended periods.

When you are seriously injured, handling insurance claims or legal matters may seem impossible. In these situations, our law firm can act as your representative, handling communications with the insurance company, opposing counsel, and other interested parties.

Negotiating Skills

Attorney Terry Bryant is an experienced negotiator who has dealt with almost every insurance company that provides policies in the state. He knows what type of evidence is needed to support your claim and won’t start negotiations until he has the ammunition he needs to get positive results. Because Terry Bryant has significant experience in the field, he understands the potential value of your claim. This allows him to recognize subpar settlement offers from the insurance company.

When you are represented by a skilled lawyer, your case may end without ever going to trial. Having one who understands how to negotiate high-quality settlements is critical to getting fair compensation.

Understanding of the Law

Another important benefit you receive from hiring a lawyer is that personal injury attorneys have extensive knowledge of the law. Unfortunately, the law isn’t always forgiving. If you make a mistake when filing a lawsuit or fail to respond to a motion by the other side, you could lose your right to take legal action. Once you have lost your right to take legal action, the insurance company may refuse to settle with you. Experienced lawyers like Terry Bryant can explain the law to you and protect you from common predatory actions by personal injury defense lawyers.

Contact Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law Today

If you were injured at your rental property due to the negligence of the property owner, you may be eligible to seek compensation for that harm. With the help of a lawyer, you can exercise your legal rights and discover the best path forward to protect your future.

Time is of the essence after suffering a serious personal injury that may require formal legal action. Call Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law now at (713) 973-8888 or toll-free 1 (800) 444-5000 for a free and confidential case review.