Premises Liability Lawyers in Pennsylvania: When a Property Owner Is Responsible

Your status decides the duty owed to you

Most of the cases we take are invitees, and the inspection duty is why constructive notice is provable at all: a business that is required to look cannot rely on not having looked.

What these cases are usually about

• Falls on spills, ice, broken pavement, unmarked level changes and poor lighting.
• Stairs and railings that do not meet code. Riser height, tread depth and handrail requirements are written down, and a measured violation is powerful evidence.
• Inadequate security, where an assault was foreseeable because of prior incidents and the owner did nothing about lighting, locks or staffing.
• Falling merchandise in warehouse format stores.
• Swimming pools, including unfenced pools and the attractive nuisance rule where children are involved.
• Dog bites on the owner’s property, which have their own rules.

Landlords and tenants

People assume the landlord is automatically responsible. Usually they are not for the interior of a leased space, where control has passed to the tenant. Landlords are commonly responsible for common areas, for hazards they knew about before the lease began, and for repairs they undertook and did badly.

Where a commercial lease allocates responsibility for sidewalks and parking areas, that document often decides who you are actually suing. It is worth getting early.

Government property is a shorter clock

A fall at a municipal building, a school, a SEPTA station or on a township sidewalk usually requires written notice within six months, and sovereign and governmental immunity limit which claims can proceed at all. There are recognized exceptions, including for real estate and sidewalks, but this is the category where waiting is fatal.

What decides these cases

Duration and documentation. How long the hazard was there, whether anyone reported it before, whether an inspection log exists and what it says, and whether the video still exists when we ask. That is why the useful advice is always the same: report it in writing before you leave, photograph it before it is cleaned up, and call quickly.