Premises Liability for Licensees

Premises liability makes an owner of property or tenant responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of his property. If injury should befall a visitor to the property, responsibility for injury lies with the owner or tenant. How much liability, though, depends on the status of the visitor.

Definition of a Licensee  

A licensee is a person entering the property at the invitation of the owner or tenant having a purpose for anything other than business. Social guests are invitees. A licensee does not need to be invited onto the property at the time of his accident, it is merely enough that he has general permission to be there and that the purpose was not for business. Because of the exclusion of visits with a business purpose, individuals coming onto property to maintain the property, such as a landscaper, or to provide a service, such as a housekeeper, are not licensees.

Obligation to Licensees

Since a licensee is invited onto property, the owner or tenant has an extremely high level of responsibility towards the guest’s safety. This is because by inviting the licensee onto the property, the owner is giving an implied statement that his property is safe. This means that courts believe that an owner or tenant should have sufficient knowledge of the property and that the hazard that caused injury posed a risk to the licensee and the licensee would have no means of discovering the danger other than being told about it. An owner or tenant, therefore, must notify a licensee of any potential hazards on the property.

Additionally, an owner or tenant must make reasonable and necessary repairs to fix the hazard so that it does not cause injury. Failure to repair does not necessarily automatically make the owner or tenant liable for the damages. Rather, the licensee must show that there was ample time to fix the hazard and that fixing it would not be unreasonable, such as it being too costly or time consuming.

Getting Legal Help

If you have been injured on a friend’s property, or if a guest has been injured on your property, seek legal assistance for any claim you may have or that may be levied against you. An attorney should be able to analyze the facts of your case and identify possible causes of action resulting from the injury.