Property owners have a responsibility to keep their premises reasonably safe for visitors. When they ignore dangerous conditions or fail to address known hazards, serious injuries can happen. Whether you slipped on a wet floor in a grocery store, fell because of broken stairs at an apartment complex, or were injured due to inadequate security, you may have the right to pursue compensation.
At Edwards Injury Law, we help people throughout Charlotte hold negligent property owners accountable. Our personal injury attorneys investigate the cause of your accident, identify who was responsible for maintaining the property, and gather the evidence needed to build a strong claim. If someone else’s negligence caused your injuries, we’re here to help you move forward with confidence.
North Carolina Premises Liability Laws Protect Lawful Visitors
Premises liability is an area of personal injury law that allows injured visitors to seek compensation when unsafe property conditions cause an accident. Not every injury automatically results in a claim, however. Under North Carolina law, you generally must show that the property owner or another responsible party failed to use reasonable care to keep the property reasonably safe.
This duty applies to many different types of properties, including:
- Grocery stores
- Restaurants
- Shopping centers
- Apartment complexes
- Hotels
- Office buildings
- Parking lots
- Private homes
Sometimes the property owner is responsible for maintaining the area where the accident occurred. In other situations, responsibility lies with a tenant, a property management company, or another business occupying the property. Identifying who controlled the dangerous area is often one of the first steps in building a successful premises liability claim.
Common Types of Premises Liability Accidents
Unsafe property conditions can lead to many different kinds of accidents, many of which cause serious injuries that require extensive medical treatment. Edwards Injury Law represents clients injured in a wide variety of premises liability cases, including:
Slip and Fall Accidents
Slip and fall accidents are among the most common types of premises liability claims. Wet floors, uneven sidewalks, loose flooring, poor lighting, and other hazards can cause visitors to lose their footing and suffer broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, back injuries, or other serious harm. Property owners have a responsibility to address these dangers or provide adequate warnings when they cannot be corrected immediately.
Unsafe Stairways
Stairways should be properly maintained and safe for visitors to use. Broken handrails, loose steps, uneven stairs, worn surfaces, or inadequate lighting can significantly increase the risk of a fall, especially in apartment buildings, office complexes, hotels, and retail stores. When these hazards are ignored, property owners may be held responsible for the resulting injuries.
Dangerous Walkways
Cracked sidewalks, potholes, uneven pavement, broken curbs, and poorly maintained walkways can create dangerous conditions for pedestrians. Whether the accident occurs outside a business, apartment complex, or private residence, property owners should take reasonable steps to repair hazards that could foreseeably cause someone to trip and fall.
Negligent Security
Negligent injury cases involve injuries caused by criminal acts that could have been prevented with reasonable security measures. Inadequate lighting, broken locks, malfunctioning security gates, or a lack of security personnel may expose visitors to foreseeable harm in places such as apartment complexes, hotels, parking garages, and shopping centers.
Falling Objects
Improperly stacked merchandise, unsecured shelving, construction materials, or other overhead hazards can cause serious injuries when objects fall unexpectedly. Businesses and property owners are expected to store materials safely and regularly inspect their premises to reduce the risk of these preventable accidents.
Dog Bites and Animal Attacks
Property owners and animal owners may be responsible when they fail to prevent a dangerous animal from injuring a lawful visitor. Dog bites and other animal attacks can result in severe physical injuries, infections, permanent scarring, and emotional trauma, making it important to understand your legal rights after an incident.
Every premises liability case is unique. Our team carefully investigates the circumstances surrounding your accident to determine the cause of your injuries, who was responsible for maintaining the property, and whether reasonable steps could have prevented the accident.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Premises Liability Accident?
The person or company that maintained the location where you were hurt is usually the one you would name in a premises liability claim.
The person who owned the property is not always the same person who had authority over the location where your injury happened. Depending on where you were injured, responsibility could fall on:
- A retail business: The store usually maintains the area where customers shop and decides how often employees inspect it.
- A commercial owner: A commercial owner may remain responsible for the building itself even when another business occupies the space.
- A landlord: A landlord often maintains shared spaces used by multiple tenants. North Carolina also places statutory repair duties on residential landlords under C. Gen. Stat. § 42-42.
- A property-management company: A property-management agreement may assign inspection or repair duties for the location where you were injured.
- A private homeowner: A homeowner can be responsible when a lawful visitor enters an area that the homeowner knew needed repair before the visitor arrived.
Edwards Injury Law obtains the lease or service agreement before accepting an insurer’s claim that someone else was supposed to make the repair. Those documents can identify who had authority over the location and explain why that person or company, rather than someone else, should answer for what happened to you.
What Must You Prove in a North Carolina Premises Liability Claim?
You need evidence showing that the person responsible for the area had an opportunity to find the condition before your injury happened.
The opportunity can come from creating dangerous conditions or allowing them to remain long enough for an employee to discover them during a routine inspection.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals explained that a property defendant can be liable after creating dangerous conditions or after failing to correct them once there was an opportunity to identify them. A written complaint is one way to establish notice, but it is not the only one.
The property owner or employee may already have had enough time to discover the condition before you encountered it. Notice can come from proof that:
- An employee created the condition: the hazard resulted from work the employee performed.
- Someone reported the problem: a customer or tenant notified the person responsible for responding.
- An inspection should have found it: The hazard remained in place long enough for an employee to discover it during a routine inspection.
- A similar incident occurred earlier: an event alerted the property owner to the same problem at the same location.
Hazards that appear moments before your injury require different proof than conditions that remain in place long enough for employees to respond. We examine how long the hazard persisted before answering the insurer’s claim that the property owner did not have enough time to identify or correct it.
Property Records Can Show How Long the Danger Existed
The place where you were hurt may not look the same by the time someone investigates what happened. A store can clean a spill within minutes, and a broken step can be repaired before photographs are taken.
Documents dated before the incident often answer questions that the property itself can no longer. The documents we request can include:
- Inspection logs: Show when an employee last checked the area.
- Repair requests: Show when the problem was first reported.
- Incident reports: Show what employees documented immediately after the injury.
- Surveillance footage: Show how long the hazard remained before the incident.
- Earlier complaints: Show whether the same problem had already been reported.
Charlotte Code Enforcement also keeps records that can help when a claim involves a building defect or another condition subject to housing or commercial code enforcement. Those files are organized by property address and can show whether city officials had already investigated the same problem before the incident.
No single document answers every question about notice. We use the dates on those documents to determine how long the problem existed before you were hurt. Your Charlotte lawyer for a premises injury claim should know whether those dates show the property owner had time to discover the problem or whether it appeared too close to the incident for anyone to respond.
How Edwards Injury Law Can Help
The property owner and the insurance company often have access to information you cannot get on your own. We request those files because they can answer when the hazard first appeared and whether the owner had enough time to respond before your injury.
Our investigation begins by identifying the documents that answer:
- Who maintained the location: We determine who was responsible for inspecting or repairing the area where you were injured.
- What did the property’s maintenance history show: We obtained documents tied to inspections or repairs completed before the incident.
- What was captured before the system recorded over it: We request the available video before the routine system settings erase it.
- Had the problem been reported before: We determine whether the same hazard had already been brought to the owner’s attention.
- How the property caused your injury: We use scene documentation and your medical records to answer the insurer’s claim that the owner had no reason to discover the hazard.
We do not assume an incident report includes every important detail. We test that account against documents dated before your injury because those files often show what the property owner knew and when that information became available.
Charlotte Premises Liability Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Sue a Property Owner for an Injury in North Carolina?
Yes, you can sue a property owner for an injury in North Carolina when the owner or another person responsible for the property caused the hazard or failed to correct it after receiving notice. An injury on someone else’s property does not necessarily lead to a lawsuit. The facts still need to show that the person responsible had an opportunity to address the problem before you were hurt.
What If Nobody Saw Me Fall?
You do not need an eyewitness to bring a premises liability claim. The store may still have surveillance footage showing what happened before the fall, even if no customer saw it. Employees may also prepare an incident report documenting what they observed upon arrival at the location.
Can I Bring a Claim If I Was Making a Delivery?
Yes, delivery drivers and other lawful visitors can bring premises liability claims when a business fails to correct a dangerous condition. A business or property occupier still owes a duty of reasonable care to someone entering for a lawful purpose.
What If the Store Cleaned the Area Before I Took a Photograph?
Cleaning the area does not ruin your claim. The store may still have surveillance footage showing what the floor looked like before employees cleaned it. Employees may also fill out an incident report documenting what they found upon responding.
How Long Do I Have to File a North Carolina Premises Liability Lawsuit?
North Carolina generally allows three years to file a premises liability lawsuit involving a personal injury under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52. The filing deadline does not guarantee evidence will still be available. Video may be recorded over, and the property itself may change long before the deadline expires.
Talk to a Charlotte Premises Liability Lawyer Today
After a premises liability accident, important evidence can disappear faster than many people realize. Hazards may be repaired, surveillance footage can be overwritten, and maintenance records may become more difficult to obtain over time. The sooner you speak with an attorney, the better your chances of preserving the evidence needed to support your claim.
At Edwards Injury Law, we understand how overwhelming an unexpected injury can be. Our team will investigate what happened, identify who may be responsible, and handle the legal process so you can focus on your recovery.
If you were injured because of unsafe property conditions, contact us today for a free consultation to learn how we can help you pursue the compensation you deserve.
