Fitzroy Legal Service Logo

INJURIES ON YOUR LAND

You have a responsibility for the safety of people using your premises.

What are "your premises"?

Premises are your premises if you are the one who decides who is and who is not allowed onto them. If the landlord is responsible for the maintenance of and the repairs to premises, then the landlord is also responsible for people who hurt themselves on the premises.

Premises include any fixed or movable structure, including any vessel, vehicle or aircraft.

What is your responsibility?

You must take all reasonable care to ensure that any person on your premises will not be hurt because of the state it is in. If you do not, you will have to pay compensation to anyone who is hurt whilst on the premises.

In deciding whether you have taken reasonable care, a court will look at:

  • how likely it was that an injury would occur;
  • how serious the injury is;
  • how the injured person came to be on your premises;
  • the nature of your premises;
  • whether you knew, or ought to have known, that people were likely to be on your premises;
  • the age of the injured person;
  • the ability of the injured person to appreciate the danger; and
  • how difficult or expensive it would have been for you to fix the thing that caused the injury, or to protect people from it.

INJURIES ON YOUR LAND :: Last updated: Wed Jul 1st 2009