OCCUPIERS

LIABILITY

If you were injured because of the condition of a building, its equipment or its floors, you may be able to claim compensation. Whoever controls those premises — a landlord, a business, a transport operator — has a legal duty to take reasonable care to keep visitors safe.

Injuries Direct is a specialist personal injury team acting for people across England and Wales on a no win, no fee basis. We're a trading style of NJS Law Limited, regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

FIND OUT IF YOU HAVE A CLAIM.

IT TAKES ONE PHONE CALL.

— WHAT IS AN OCCUPIERS’ LIABILITY CLAIM?

An occupiers' liability claim is a compensation claim brought when you're injured because premises weren't kept reasonably safe by whoever controls them.

Unlike most injury claims, this one rests on statute. The Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 sets out the duty owed to lawful visitors: a duty to take such care as is reasonable to see that you're reasonably safe in using the premises for the purpose you're there for. The Occupiers' Liability Act 1984 extends a narrower duty to people who aren't lawful visitors.

"Occupier" doesn't mean owner. It means whoever has sufficient control over the premises — which might be a landlord, a managing agent, a tenant business, or a transport operator. More than one party can be an occupier of the same place at the same time, and part of our job is identifying who's actually responsible.

Two questions usually decide these claims:

  • Was the premises reasonably safe for what you were doing there? A fire escape need not be as safe as a shop floor. The standard flexes with the purpose.

  • Did the occupier know, or should they have known, about the danger? A fault reported weeks earlier and left unfixed is a very different case from one that arose that morning.