QUESTION
Will I be able to sue my apartment's property management company or owners if I became the victim of a crime?
Asked on Jun 29th, 2021 on General Practice - Florida
More details to this question:
A disturbed tenant(whom I've never met) rammed his car into my apartment and entered my home, threatening my life with a knife. I have been left homeless and traumatized. There have been several police reports filed against the same tenant by several other tenants for disturbances and threats (I was not one of them- I've never encountered him prior to the crime) and the police informed the other tenants that nothing could be done about the situation until a complaint was filed to the property management company. The other tenants filed numerous complaints to the management company about the perpetrator but nothing was done to resolve the issue. Then, the said tenant has an episode and rams his car 3 time into my apartment, severely damaging the structure bad enough to make the place inhospitable. After which, he enters my home armed with a knife, and threatens my life. Are the property management company or property owners liable for what happened to me?
1 ANSWER
Yes, a property manager has a legal duty to evict or not rent to tenants who they know or should know pose a risk of danger to life or safety of other tenants on the property. So if complaints were made by other tenants to the management that this tenant was a bad apple, then they had a legal duty to evict that tenant and as a result of their failure to evict, you suffered forseeable injuries that They should be liable for. Now Florida follows the "impact rule", which means that in order to recover for personal injuries, you have to suffer what's called a physical injury or an impact to your physical body. There are few exceptions to this rule, but that is an issue in your case because you did not specify whether he actually caused an impact to your physical body. You should discuss your case in further detail with counsel here in Florida for possible contingency fee representation, which means you don't pay anything unless you win your case.
Answered on Jun 29th, 2021 at 3:04 PM