If you are renting or own an investment property, are you aware of what might happen if someone is injured because of a latent defect in the property?
With approximately 40% of Australian households being rented, it is important to know and understand the legal implications in these situations.
It is commonly accepted that a landlord owes a tenant a duty of care to protect them from reasonably foreseeable risks associated with the property.
But how far does that duty go?
When determining liability in these cases, the sticking point is usually whether there was a “reasonably foreseeable risk of injury”.
This can involve consideration of whether the landlord ought to have inspected the premises prior to the tenancy agreement. If an inspection was not carried out, the next question is whether any such inspection would have resulted in the discovery of the defect or risk which caused injury.
