Liabilities of a Homeowner | Preszler Law Toronto Injury Lawyer

In this segment from The Morning Show, personal injury lawyer Jeffrey Preszler of Preszler Injury Lawyers discusses the importance of inspecting your property for hazards as spring approaches. He highlights potential dangers such as potholes and uneven ground that can lead to injuries, especially when hosting events like yard sales. Under Ontario law, homeowners are obligated to ensure their property is reasonably safe for visitors. Preszler offers practical advice for mitigating risks, such as using fluorescent paint to mark hazards. He also explains that most homeowners have liability insurance to handle incidents, which can help avoid court proceedings. For further inquiries, viewers are encouraged to reach out to Preszler Injury Lawyers.

This segment is brought to you by Preszler Injury Lawyers, helping accident victims since 1959.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Liza Fromer, and you're watching The Morning Show here on Global. We're looking for a high of seven later today. Well, it may not feel like it, particularly today, but spring is here, and that means many people will be spending more time outdoors, maybe hosting a garage sale, backyard parties, or just hanging out with the kids in front of your house. But don't go planning that yard sale just yet. Personal injury lawyer Jeffrey Preszler is here to tell us why being unprepared could cost you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So, you know, winter takes its toll, and a lot of stuff can start to get damaged. What should a homeowner be looking for?

Well, I think we'd all agree that this year was particularly a brutal winter. Now that the snow has left us, we have an opportunity to actually inspect our property and take a look to see whether there are any hazards present. Now, we lawyers would consider hazards to be potholes, large cracks in the ground, even uneven ground. If some people have interlocking brick or stone, there are also the city valves that most of us have on our driveways that can pop up. All these things represent trip hazards, and those are things you have to be concerned about when inviting people over or if you plan on hosting an event. Even if it's something as simple as a yard sale, if someone walks onto your yard and trips and injures themselves, yes, that's on you.

The law in Ontario, as it currently stands, states that if you invite people onto your property or even if you host an activity on your property, you're legally obligated to make sure that your property is reasonably safe. Now, that doesn't mean that it has to be absolutely perfect, but for things that are considered dangerous or hazardous, you do have to take positive steps to rectify those deficiencies.

What can you do in the interim? If I've identified a problem and I know it's going to get fixed, but it's not going to get fixed for four weeks, let's say, and I'm having people over, are there ways I can mitigate my risk?

You sure can, and that's a great question. We hear it regularly because for some people, it's not always practical to repave their entire driveway or to repair that entire flight of stairs. So if you have a broken step or if there's a chip or a raised piece of interlocking stone, you can go to one of your local hardware stores, purchase a bottle of fluorescent paint, and spray it so that you at least alert members of the public to the presence of that hazard. Because that's really where liability can be imputed onto you—when people are unaware of the hazard or it's not something that you'd ordinarily expect if a party was to keep their property reasonably safe.

What happens if someone does get injured on your property? Do you typically end up in court, or can you avoid going to court?

Well, most people, especially if you're the homeowner or even a renter, have liability insurance. So most people would simply report it to their insurance company, and then the insurance company would appoint lawyers and deal with the matter if it ever got to a lawsuit stage.

I'm going to go home and do the walk-around.

You should!

Jeffrey Preszler of Preszler Injury Lawyers, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And if you have any questions on personal injury for Jeffrey and his team at Preszler Injury Lawyers, visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/morningshowTO. We'll be right back.