Old apartment complexes  nursing homes and buildings of all kind require maintenance to keep the premises in “reasonably safe condition.”  Maintenance costs in any business cut into profits. Many times the property owner and property manager will let the  outside stairways to deteriorate for years. The wood, the steps, the metal, including the handrails attached to the wood will rust and break off.  The entire structure is exposed to the weather and the elements. Some stairways even vibrate or rock from side to side from the wood supports  rotting or the metal screws becoming loose. Even the cement steps chip, become worn and start to separate from metal end caps.

When an injury occurs to a tenant and you hire a lawyer to represent you, your lawyer should undertake capturing the stairway in photographs  from all angles and views so that an expert engineer can review the photographs and provide expert testimony as to safety hazards and code violations. Present tenants will be interviewed as to how long the tenants have been residing in the apartment complex and what each tenant knows about the lack of maintenance and the names of prior tenants that have fallen or expressed complaints to the property manager about how unsafe and dangerous it is to go up and down the stairway. Finding out the names of the maintenance employees and ex-employees often will be valuable in securing what lawyers call “notice testimony.” This is testimony to establish the owner of the property “knew or should have known” by the information regarding prior tenant falls and complaints of tenants that stairways were waiting to seriously harm other tenants.

Your lawyer will allege that the duty owed by the premise owner is a non-delegable duty to the Plaintiff to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition, and to warn the Plaintiff of any dangers or hazards which existed but which were not otherwise obvious to the Plaintiff. Many times there is no elevator and the Plaintiff has no option other than to use the one stairway going up very day multiple times a day. The metal casings (treads) of the stairway are generally  constructed of concrete poured in metal pans.  If the photographs reveal that the steps in the vicinity of where the  Plaintiff lost her balance, the balance loss can be as a result of the metal pan encasing the concrete was degraded and raised with extensive corrosion and disrepair, which could foreseeably contribute to the Plaintiff’s trip and fall.

How many times in older buildings do you find the total absence of a handrail or there is no continuous uninterrupted handrail to grasp should the Plaintiff lose  her or her balance when coming down in the rain. The presence of a  continuously graspable handrail is an accepted means to mitigate a slip/trip and fall incident that may occur during normal use and emergency use. The failure to provide such a handrail can be the very reason the Plaintiff fell. Some cases you have handrails which are broken with jagged edges which have cut other invitees visiting the premises and the property manager and owner have done nothing to repair the handrails.

Older buildings built in the early 1970’s installed guard rails made of wood. The stairway can actually become loose and unstable from lack of maintenance making the guard rails shaky and unsafe for use by the Plaintiff and other invitees on the premises. Often the Plaintiff’s trip and fall was caused by the Defendant’s failure to provide guard rails of adequate strength and firmness to prevent the stairway from shaking and wobbling when used by the Plaintiff.

The use of a private investigator to locate prior employees who worked in the maintenance department may uncover evidence to allege in the complaint that The Defendant failed to make repairs to the stairway for the apartment building in which the Plaintiff’s apartment was located after the Defendant knew from prior complaints of the Plaintiff that she was fearful of falling down the stairs.  Further, that the Defendant failed to install a continuously graspable handrail, clean steps of the organic growth and other contaminants such that the stairs offered uniform traction under foreseeable use; repair or replace the concrete steps to make them uniform with respect to geometry, surface texture and traction, and failed to provide firm and stable guard rails with adequate load bearing capacity.

The total disregard of maintenance  of the stairway may lead to an allegation that the Defendants  failed to meet at least the minimum safety standard set forth and maintained in Section 3401.6 of the 2001 Florida Building Code which states that all buildings and parts thereof shall be maintained in a safe and sanitary condition.  The owner or designated agent shall be responsible for the maintenance.

A common failure to maintain the stairways arises when the maintenance department fails to provide a uniformly slip restraint walking surface on the stairs, when the Defendant knew or should have known that the steps were exposed to outdoor weather conditions, particularly rain and standing water, which promotes organic growth and is a foreseeable contributing factor which contributed to the Plaintiff’s slip/misstep incident.

Apartment owners and property managers are owe all tenants a duty to have the stairs meet the minimum safety standards set forth herein and  to maintain the steps and stairways in accordance with the Standards of the Florida Building Code, NFPA 101 Life Safety Code.

A thorough investigation of the premises will show violations of the Florida Building Code 1012 entitled “Handrails” in that on the date of the Plaintiff’s fell, there was no hand rail that was in compliance with the height and grasp requirements.

People don’t fall without a reason. The Defendants will never admit any negligence. The defense will argue ” the world is not flat” live with it. Don’t let the property manager just blow you off. If you have complained about problems in your apartment and on the property, there are likely many other tenants who have done so as well. Even if the complaints are not exactly about the same fear of falling down the stairs or of lose handrails, it may be relevant and admissible as to the failure to respond  to timely notice given by tenants who have requested maintenance be performed.