If you’re a homeowner, it’s your responsibility to ensure the safety of the people on your property. But what happens when there’s a personal injury case on your premises? You may think it’s unlikely, but think of the people you could potentially invite into your home. You can invite your contractors, babysitters, and housekeepers. It’s especially common for homeowners to invite repairmen to their homes.
For instance, about 99% of all gutters are known to fail at one point or another, even when installed correctly. It’s best to inspect your gutters every few months, particularly when it rains heavily. If you find any issues, you need to invite a contractor to take care of the issue. The point is, you may be liable if there’s an injury on the job. Here’s what you need to know.
A Personal Injury Requires Urgent Care
When a person gets injured on your property, it’s essential that you act quickly so that they receive urgent care. If someone gets injured on your property, premises liability applies if the injury happens because of some type of unsafe or defective condition on your property. However, this doesn’t always mean that the person got injured because of negligence.
There are many different types of personal injury cases that fall under personal liability. The cases include slips, falls, dog bites, and fires. Hazardous carpets can cause slips and falls. The US carpet cleaning industry generates a revenue of approximately $5 billion per year on average. Still, carpets are also associated with a considerable number of fall injuries in adults each year. Some of these injuries require urgent care, and in most instances, it’s your duty to ensure that the injured person receives immediate medical attention.
What’s Your Duty Towards Employees On Your Property?
There are many different types of invitees that you may be responsible for. A person that you employ on your property, such as a houseworker or repairman, is also an invitee. When you have an employee on your property, it’s your duty to exercise the right degree of care to ensure their safety.
Besides uncovering and repairing all hazards on your property, it’s also essential to be prepared for the unexpected. Even when you have provided a reasonably safe space for workers, it can still happen that a worker gets injured. In that case, the biggest duty you have towards employees on your property is to ensure they get the urgent care they need.
Overall, employees must know how to respond when a personal injury occurs on your property. As a matter of fact, employees should know how to react in various urgent circumstances. For instance, they should know how to respond to the execution of a search warrant. Most police searches require a search warrant based on probable cause under the Fourth Amendment.
How Does Workers Compensation Apply?
You’re not always liable for a personal injury case that happens on your property if you have hired a licensed general contractor. This is especially so if you leave the contractor to exercise greater control over the project. The good news is, most licensed contractors are legally required to make sure their employees are covered by workers’ compensation.
Workers’ comp is designed to provide medical compensation and financial compensation to employees that get injured on the job. But keep in mind that this only applies if you have hired a licensed contractor. Otherwise, you’ll still be liable because unlicensed contractors are typically not covered by workers’ comp.
The other thing is, the general contractor or any work that you hire to work in your home is still your employee, and they are not covered by workers’ compensation insurance. That means if they are injured because of negligence or a mistake on your part, you’ll still be held liable for their injuries. However, the applicable laws tend to vary from state to state. In a nutshell, you may be liable if there’s a personal injury case on your property, and it’s your duty to ensure the person receives appropriate urgent care.
