When people pay to rent an apartment, they don’t want to deal with negligent maintenance. In exchange for rent payments, the tenants expect that the landlord of the property or the landlord’s property manager will maintain the property so that it conforms to some of the most basic safety standards that prevent injuries. When this maintenance isn’t happening, things can go wrong and accidents can happen. One woman has recently filed a lawsuit in the Cook County Circuit Court about a landlord negligence issue at her apartment building that caused an accident that injured her.
The woman was living at a Chicago apartment building on South Morgan Street. She says that the bannister on a flight of stairs gave way when she was going down the stairs on Aug. 9, 2012. She then fell down the stairs because of the negligent maintenance. She has opted to file a premises liability against East Lake Management Group Inc. over the negligent upkeep of the apartment building. This woman is asking for damages in excess of $50,000 for the incident.
Serious injuries can occur when a person falls down the stairs. Those injuries usually come with significant medical costs. Anyone who has fallen down stairs because a property manager or property owner didn’t properly maintain the area has the right to do as this tenant did and seek relief for damages associated with the fall. Understanding premises liability lawsuits and the terms associated with them might help an injured party decide how to proceed with claims for compensation.
Source: The Cook County Record, “Tenant blames property manager for stair fall, claims bannister gave way” Annie Cosby, Jul. 24, 2014