Just read a case in CT where a single family homeowner was renting out a room to two people. It had a separate entrance that had 12-15 steps up to the second floor. Apparently, there were no handrails and the stairway was out of code. Tenant fell on his head and had major injuries. Jury came back with $2 million dollar verdict. LL did not have enough liability insurance so they are filing bankruptcy, but plaintiff's attorney is filing a judgment lien against their house (which I think is awful). Unfortunately, in CT we do not have a homestead exemption like other states (MA, FL, etc).

My insurance agent always says, "If you insure for a million, they sue for 2."

Things happen weather you protect yourself or not. The first line of defense is to not allow issues to remain at our rentals. The second thing we can do to protect ourselves is to carry a basic insurance policy with higher limits of liability, then to have a back up Umbrella policy with excess insurance.

One friend who inherited several rentals from their parents needed help with the management and liability issues. So I conducted a quick inspection and issued a written report.

One of the first things on my list was an easy problem to resolve. A duplex had a 100 foot garden hose on the front lawn that just laid where ever the last user left it. The hose had kinks and loupes that anyone waking across the lawn at night could easily trip and fall -- thus injuring themselves.

I suggested to either remove the hose or purchase a shorter hose, like a 50foot and install a wall mounted garden house rack -- for around $12.

As it turns out the owner purchased again a new 100 foot hose so that neighbors, guests and tenants could run the hose to the street to wash their cars. This was a duplex and the owner paid the water bill.

So one day a tenant ran the hose across the front entrance walkway, across the sidewalk and too the street to wash their cars. While washing a car an elderly walker tripped on the hose running across the sidewalk and fell, breaking their wrist while falling to the ground.

The owners never increased their insurance policy, from $50,000/$100,000 to $500,000/$1,000,000 -- and then also couldn't qualify for an umbrella excess policy for 2 to 5 million dollars.

The medical bills, pain and suffering of the 80 year old man with a broken wrist was over the insurance limits. SO the insurance carrier agreed to pay the policy maximum, $50,000 and the injured party, the hospital and lawyers went after the property owners for the balance of costs. The owner didn't want to deplete their savings or retirement accounts to satisfy any possible judgement, so they hired a defense lawyer (the wrong kind of attorney -- a family friend who's specialty wasn't liability issues and lost the case) So now the property owner had a lien against the rental property, their personal residence, cars and general bank accounts.

They could have spent $12 on a hose rack. They could have spent $300 to raise their insurance limits and then obtained an Umbrella policy for a few hundred dollars extra to protect all rentals and their home. Instead they had to pay their lawyer over $40,000 and judgement of approximately $250,000.

They ended up selling a duplex and took a new first mortgage on their home -- now taking another 30 years to pay off..... The owner was their worst victim asking for advice and not taking it.

Most of my other friends took my advice and got the coverage they needed and tried to keep things safe.....

Taz,

I think it's a shame the courts made a judgment that large. It's probably to send a message or punish the LL.. Court is not about truth it's about who can yell the loudest and convince the jury.

Anyone could fall down even a single step. I don't think the lack of a handrail MAKES someone fall.

BUT...

I do agree the LL was negligent to not have a handrail on 12-15 steps.

(Or were these large open steps like at the US Capitol building?)

Also, having argued with back pain over the years, there were times I needed a handrail for a single step.