HOA Liability For Injuries On Premises: Part I
By M. Lloyd Roebuck, Jeffery R. Sport, Condo Owner Magazine, Volume 17, Issue 2
I. INTRODUCTION
As any other corporation or legal entity, a condominium association can face potential liability for injuries sustained on its premises under certain conditions. Recent reported incidents or accidents that have occurred along the Alabama-Florida coast have included children and adults falling from balconies, the collapse of a residential porch/deck and the tragic death of a child that occurred while skateboarding on a parking deck ramp. The legal duty owed by an association to persons who come on to the condominium property largely depends upon the status of such persons in relation to the condominium’s property, such as, whether a person is a trespasser, a licensee, or an invitee.[i]
Most condominium guests will fit within the definition of a business invitee who is on the property as a result of renting or owning a condominium unit and therefore conveying some commercial or economic benefit to the association.[ii] A condominium association, as the entity in charge of the premises, owes the legal duty to business invitees, such as renters, “to exercise reasonable care and diligence to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition for the uses contemplated by the invitation and to warn the invitee of known dangers, or dangers that ought to have been known, and of which the invitee was ignorant.” Miller v. Liberty Park Joint Venture, LLC, 84 So.3d 88 (2011).
On the other hand, other visitors could be found on the condominium premises that fit the definition of a landowner’s guest who is not there for a business purpose or paying rent for the condominium. That person has the legal status of a licensee. Then, there would be a group of persons that may come on to the condominium property as trespassers or persons who are there without the consent of the landowner and certainly not on the property for any business purpose or pursuant to any invitation of an owner or renter.
As to trespassers, the law provides that an occupier of land such as a condominium association owes the duty to trespassers only to not willfully or wantonly injure them or put traps or pitfalls in their way and to warn them of any danger that is actually known by the occupier of the property after the association would have knowledge of the presence of the trespassers.[iii] An example of a trespasser would be a person who takes a shortcut from the north side of the road to the beach by traversing between condominium buildings. If there is a hole on the condominium’s property and the association knows that the hole exists and that it poses a potential hazard to persons who the association knows are trespassing on its property, the association could be held liable for injuries sustained by the trespasser. Under that scenario, the association should put up a warning sign or take remedial action to cover the hole.
As to persons who come onto the property as a guest of a unit owner, those persons have the status of a licensee and the duty owed by the association is not as great as that owed to a business invitee. As a licensee, the association would only owe the duty to (1) to abstain from willfully or wantonly injuring the licensee and, (2) to avoid negligently injuring the licensee after the landowner discovers a danger to the licensee.[iv] Further, the duty owed by the association toward such licensees is not an active one to safely maintain the premises; rather, the law imposes upon the association as a landowner the duty of not creating any kind of condition on its premises that could not be avoided by the use of reasonable care and skill of the licensee-guest.[v]
This article is the first in a two-part series on the basics of premises liability. Actual cases decided by the Alabama and Florida courts are discussed; however, the reader is cautioned that these cases turn on their own facts and that the associations should seek counsel from their attorneys concerning any incidents that occur on their properties.
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