You deserve a safe place to live. When your apartment complex puts profits over your health and safety, it’s important to take action. Whether you’ve been assaulted in a common space or slipped and fell on broken stairs, our premises liability lawyers can help you sue your apartment complex for negligence. A successful legal claim can help accelerate change and compensate you for your injuries.
An estimated 38.9 million Americans live in apartment complexes across the United States. Living in an apartment certainly has its benefits – the complex is responsible for maintaining common areas and addressing problems within individual units.
Unfortunately, running an apartment complex is a business, and owners often cut corners to save costs. These shortcuts are often to the detriment of residents and their guests.
Fortunately, apartment complexes have a legal duty to maintain their properties in a reasonably safe condition. Typically, this responsibility involves ensuring habitability by inspecting the premises for potential hazards, fixing dangerous conditions, and warning residents and guests about potential dangers.
When an apartment complex fails to take these actions, it can be financially and legally responsible for a resident’s financial losses, personal injury, or death.
How Do I Prove My Apartment Complex Was Negligent?
In order to sue your apartment complex, you must provide solid evidence that management was negligent. Negligence refers to a failure to exercise reasonable care, which, in turn, causes an injury or death.
Here are the different areas of negligence you have to prove in order to sue an apartment complex:
Duty
You must establish that the apartment complex owed you a duty of care. The good news is that this duty is imposed by both state and federal law. Landlords – and, in turn, apartment complexes – are bound by the federal Fair Housing Act and state premises liability law.
Ultimately, the complex has a legal duty to do the following:
- Provide habitable living spaces
- Maintain common areas
- Inspect the property regularly for damage and potential hazards
- Perform repairs upon actual or constructive knowledge of a dangerous condition
- Provide an adequate warning to renters and guests when it can’t do immediate repairs
Your landlord-tenant relationship triggers this duty of care.
Breach
Next, you’ll have to prove that the apartment complex breached its duty of care to you. This means that the complex failed to act reasonably.
Examples of breaches might include the following:
- Failing to remove ice or snow from sidewalks and parking lots
- Failing to maintain common areas in a safe condition
- Failing to act on information about a hazard or dangerous condition
- Refusing to fix a problem in your dwelling, including electrical, plumbing, or HVAC problems
- Failing to install adequate security measures to prevent foreseeable acts of crime
Once the apartment complex is aware of an issue, it is legally obligated to take care of it. If the complex doesn’t, it may be a breach of the duty owed to you and other renters.
Causation
It’s not enough to show that the apartment complex breached its duty of care to you. You must also demonstrate that the apartment complex’s actions, or failure to act, were the actual and proximate cause of your injury.
In these situations, your injury might involve property damage, financial losses, physical injury, or a family member’s wrongful death
Ultimately, you must demonstrate that you would not have suffered injury if the apartment complex had done its job and provided a safe living environment.
Damages
You must be able to identify specific damages that resulted from your injury. This might include premises repair costs, pest management and extermination costs, relocation expenses, medical bills, or lost wages.
You don’t have to navigate a complex negligence action alone. When you turn to Brown & Crouppen, our experienced personal injury attorneys will draw on decades of experience and build a compelling legal claim on your behalf. We’ve forced landlords, property owners, businesses, and insurance companies to pay our clients well over $2 billion. Now, we’re ready to fight for you.
Why Should I Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer Before Suing an Apartment Complex?
Your apartment complex won’t admit ignoring essential safety regulations or allowing you to live in an uninhabitable unit. They’ll ignore your requests for help or even blame you for certain problems.
You’re an individual trying to take on a business – and a powerful one, at that. For your case to be successful, it is important to level the playing field.
You can accomplish this by hiring an experienced personal injury attorney near you to handle your apartment complex negligence case.
When you hire an attorney:
- You’re statistically more likely to win your case and secure a higher monetary award.
- You benefit from the law firm’s financial resources and network of trusted experts.
- You force the apartment complex and its defense team to take your case seriously and engage in meaningful settlement negotiations.
- You can take time to find a new home, recover from your injuries, or do whatever is necessary to move forward with your life.
Ultimately, you don’t have to worry about proving the complex was negligent or building a successful legal claim—your lawyer will do that for you. Your attorney will investigate your claim, gather evidence, and ultimately build a case that clearly demonstrates the apartment complex’s negligence and how it altered your life.
When the threat of litigation is on the table, an apartment complex is more likely to take your case seriously. That’s why you shouldn’t hesitate to contact Brown & Crouppen Law Firm for help.
Since 1979, our firm has been recognized for its top-rated premises liability attorneys in the Midwest. Our lawyers have the experience, resources, and drive needed to go toe-to-toe with powerful corporations and win big for our clients. Call us to find out how we can help you, too.
How Brown & Crouppen Can Help You Maximize Your Recovery
Suing an apartment complex for negligence can seem intimidating. The good news is that you don’t have to take on your landlord alone. The experienced premises liability attorneys at Brown & Crouppen are here to help.
At Brown & Crouppen, we’ve been helping victims of apartment complex negligence take on powerful landlords and insurance companies for more than 44 years. As leaders in personal injury litigation in the Midwest, our award-winning trial attorneys have helped our clients win over $2 billion in settlements and jury awards.
When you seek our help with your apartment complex negligence case, you’ll receive the full-service, personalized legal representation you deserve.
Count on our top-rated law firm to do the following:
- Listen to your story and explain your rights during a free initial case evaluation
- Carefully investigate the circumstances of your apartment complex negligence case
- Gather evidence to prove that your landlord was negligent, including prior violations of health and safety regulations
- Interview eyewitnesses and other apartment-complex tenants
- Consult with expert witnesses to calculate your lawsuit’s potential worth
- Represent you during all initial conversations with the apartment complex and its insurance company as we work to secure a meaningful resolution to your dispute
- Aggressively seek a fair settlement
- File a civil lawsuit and bring your apartment complex negligence case to a local jury, if necessary
Your apartment is your home. You deserve to have a safe place to live. If your residence is unreasonably dangerous or uninhabitable because your apartment complex refuses to do its job, our premises liability attorneys will help make things right.
Contact us to schedule a free consultation to learn more. We’re always here to help – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Types of Apartment Complex Negligence Cases
Apartment complexes are responsible for providing habitable units for residents and maintaining the premises in a reasonably safe condition.
As you might expect, there are several ways an apartment complex can fail to satisfy these minimal requirements.
At Brown & Crouppen, we represent clients in apartment complex negligence cases involving:
- Assault and battery
- Gun injuries
- Negligent security
- Apartment fires
- Bed bugs and other infestations
- Unsafe common spaces
- Toxic exposure, including mold and asbestos
- Uninhabitable premises
- Failing to perform necessary repairs
- Dog bites and animal attacks
- Deteriorated structure
- Swimming pool accidents
Experience matters when suing your apartment complex. Put ours to work for you. Call us today to discuss the specific details of your apartment complex negligence case.
Do I Need to Move Out Before Filing a Lawsuit?
You do not have to move out of your apartment before suing the complex. However, if you are filing a lawsuit because your apartment is not habitable, it might be smart to seek housing elsewhere. Your health and safety should be your first priority—and you can ask a court to order your old apartment complex to cover your temporary housing costs.
How Much Does it Cost to Sue an Apartment Complex?
Nothing out of pocket. When you hire an attorney on a contingency fee basis, the firm will cover the costs of your apartment complex negligence lawsuit. You’ll only pay when your attorney wins your case. Any case-related costs and attorney fees will be deducted from your financial award.
How Do I Report an Apartment Complex for Negligence?
You can report your apartment complex’s negligence to the local Health Department or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HUD accepts complaints online regarding habitability, poor management, health hazards, and general safety concerns.
Call Brown & Crouppen For Help With Your Apartment Complex Negligence Lawsuit Today
You have the right to live in a safe, habitable apartment. Unfortunately, your landlord might be more interested in profits than ensuring a safe place to live. If your landlord has ignored reports of dangerous conditions or allowed your complex to fall apart, you have the right to take civil legal action.
By filing an apartment complex negligence lawsuit, you can hold your landlord accountable for their actions and protect yourself and others in the process.
Brown & Crouppen can help. Since 1979, our premises liability attorneys have helped victims of unsavory landlords assert their rights and secure financial justice.
Want to know if you have a case? Call our law office to set up a free consultation today.
