Liability can exist for the failure to safely maintain property. Here are two classic examples in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania where our lawyers practice:
(1) a landslide (the moving of property) causing damage to another person’s at a lower elevations,
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If you suffered damage to your property from movement via a landslide, you are probably wondering about compensation: Most home owner insurance policies exclude coverage for the movement of land. Therefore, even though you may have home owner insurance coverage, it may not cover damage to your home from a landslide.
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When your insurance will not compensate you, then you should consider bringing a claim on the owner of the property that slid into yours or that caused yours to otherwise become unstable. You should have an attorney do this, as there are important deadlines discussed below.
(2) injury and damages from a defect of the property, causing harmful situations such as:
– A slip and fall on the property
– a bicyclist injured from the condition of property, or
– injury to a motorist from a roadway or intersection, traffic light, or guardrail; , or
– a pedestrian tripping and/or slipping and falling from some condition of property.
Claims Against the Government
Often, the owner of dangerous property is the government.
For claims against a government entity, there may be barriers to recovery as indicated in this post (click here). For example, your lawyer has to serve formal written notice to the governmental entity via certified mailing within six months of our injury, and for claims against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you also have to serve the same notice on the attorney general. There are also caps on liability, plus for claims on municipalities, the physical harm has to be permanent (such as involving a physical scar), or disabling but talk to a lawyer before giving up on any claim.
Duties Of Land Owners
Above all, find out what duty of care another owed to your client and how the duty was violated. There is no “strict liability” for the maintenance of property. You have to show how the person responsible for the property was negligent.
Then, your lawyer will check the county property records regarding ownership of the properties around your that are involved in the movement of land. Allegheny County posts this information online.
Check List To Evaluate Claims
Once you know the identify of the owner(s) of property that moved and damaged yours, you have to ask some more questions about the owners: Is the owner:
a.) A governmental entity? There are certain limits to governmental liability, such as the time period during which you must sue or serve and file formal notice of your claim (six months). There are also financial caps on liability where a governmental entity is involved. Plus, there are different rules for local and city governments (or “local agency”) versus the Commonwealth, for the latter, click here.
Overall, governmental entities are generally immune from suit, unless your attorney can find that your claims fits within one of the exceptions to immunity, as our Pittsburgh lawyers work to do. If your claims concerns a defect of governmental property, your case may fall within the “real property” exception to immunity, but there are issues for your lawyer to consider in terms of finding way to make your case fit an exception to immunity.
b.) Who is Responsible For the Property? The mere fact of ownership of a property does not necessarily create responsibility for harm caused by a defect of the property. It may be the case that the owner leased the property to someone else, and the owner had no knowledge and was not “negligent” in terms of maintaining the property because the tenant’s use of the property is what caused the harm, with no knowledge on the part of the owner. Or, it may be the case that the owner or tenant hired a management company that was negligent. You will need to also sue the management company, to trigger said company’s insurance coverage to add to the possible sources of compensation.
c.) Was a Builder or Contractor Responsible for the Defect? You have to ask, did a contractor or sub-contractor do work on the property as to make the property dangerous? For example, did the contractor: (a) fail to get an engineer’s opinion prior to commencing work? (b) construct a structure, or barrier, or retaining wall, or sidewalk, in a negligent manner, causing your injuries or damages to your property? (c) failure to take into account complaints or issues post-construction that would give the contractor a reason to re-visit the property before any movement would occur.
c.) How long ago did the improvement to land happen? This is key because in PA, there is a twelve year statute of repose, meaning even if you fail to discover the defect of the property, as improved or changed, your claim is forever barred if not brought within 12 years of the change. So, for example, if a builder puts in a drain system above your property, negligently, you have 12 years to sue from the date of the installation, even if you do not notice harm until year 11, giving you only one year to file suit.
Personal Injury From Defect of Property
As mentioned, aside from a landslide, or movement of property, there might be a another kind of defect that causes injury: a person slipping and falling; bicyclist injured from the condition of property, as discussed elsewhere on this site: injury to a motorist from a roadway or intersection, traffic light, or guardrail, and you could have a claim on PennDOT, click here.
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