Occupiers Liability Claims

Have you had an accident in a public place or injured yourself on someone else’s property?

If you are involved in an accident on someone else’s property (which could be the street, a shop, a housing estate or any public place such as a park), you may be entitled to compensation from the ‘occupier’ of that property.  You may have an occupiers liability claim.  What is that? If you were injured on someone else’s premises, whether because of uneven paving slabs, slippery surfaces or falling objects, the ‘occupier’ of the premises may be responsible for your injuries.

The ‘occupier’ is usually the person, council or company, landlord or tenant who has ‘control’ over the premises/land where you were injured.  This is called an Occupiers Liability Claim.

Call Grieves solicitors on 0800 0747 644 now to speak to an experienced personal injury solicitor for legal advice, and begin public injury claims.

What counts as someone else’s land?

‘You are a ‘visitor’ if you have permission to be on the premises/land.’

Under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, an occupier must take reasonable care to ensure that ‘lawful visitors’ to his/her premises/land are safe when they are on their premises/land.

You might have been given express permission to be on the land such as a landlord making an appointment for a plumber to visit, or legitimate reason to be there such as a school or building site.

Even if you were not a ‘visitor’ i.e. you did not have permission to be on the premises/land, you may still have a claim. A child may not have had permission to be on the premises/land but may have been attracted onto the property because of something which was alluring to him or her. It is down to the occupier to ensure safety measures are in place that this is not possible.

In the case of Gabriel v Kirklees Metropolitan Council [2004] EWCA Civ 345 brought by Helen Grieves of Grieves Solicitors,  in the Court of Appeal, Tashan Gabriel, a child claimed damages against the Kirklees Metropolitan Council through his father and litigation friend.  He was walking past a building site, when he was struck in the eye by an object thrown by children playing on the site. This site was owned and occupied by Kirklees Metropolitan Council.  The Court of Appeal ordered a re-trial and the Claimant was successful in obtaining an award of compensation from Kirklees Council who had failed in their duty of care to the Claimant  

If you want one of our specialist lawyers to fight your case for personal injury claims, please call us now on 0800 0747 644 for a free, no-obligation assessment.

Can I claim pavement trip compensation?

You may wish to make a claim against the council for failing to maintain the highway or footpath. This is a possibility, although the law surrounding a council’s liability does provide them with a defence to such claims if they can show they operated a reasonable system of inspection and repair of the highway.

So, for example, they are not liable for a slip, trip and falls claim as soon as a defect occurs in a pavement, but only if they fail to repair it within a reasonable time once it has been reported, or when it should have been discovered through a reasonable maintenance regime. Records must be kept of such maintenance and must be available for inspection.