Halloween is a time for thrills, chills, and creative displays. While most homeowners/occupiers are focused on delivering a good scare, the last thing anyone wants is for a visitor to leave with a real injury instead of a bag of candy.
Whether you’re setting up a haunted walkway, decorating your front yard with skeletons, or stringing lights around the porch, it’s important to keep safety in mind. Under Ontario’s Occupiers’ Liability Act, people who own, occupy, or control a property have a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure visitors are reasonably safe while on the premises. These people are referred to as “occupiers” under the legislation.
This does not mean occupiers must guarantee that nobody will ever be injured. Accidents can happen. The law simply requires occupiers to act reasonably and address hazards that could foreseeably cause injury to people invited onto the property.
