Your home is supposed to be the safe place. A stair that gives way in the breezeway, a lock that never worked, a parking lot left dark where everyone knew the trouble was. When the landlord lets the shared spaces fall apart or go unsecured, the people who live there are the ones who pay for it.
The complex and its insurer will point at you, or at a stranger, or at bad luck. Keeping the common areas safe is the landlord’s job, and a landlord that collected rent while ignoring a known danger is part of why you were hurt. We hold it to that duty.
Two ways a landlord case is built
Most apartment cases run along one of two tracks. The first is the duty to maintain. A landlord owes a continuing duty to keep the common areas reasonably safe and to fix or warn about dangers it knew or should have found, so a broken stair, a failed railing, a dark stairwell, or a deteriorated walkway in a shared space is the landlord’s responsibility, not the tenant’s. Florida courts have held that the landlord is charged with knowing the condition of its own property.
The second track is negligent security. When a foreseeable crime hurts a resident or guest because the complex skimped on lighting, locks, gates, or cameras, the complex can be liable. Florida gives a multifamily owner a presumption against liability under Fla. Stat. 768.0706 if it substantially implements a set of security measures, including cameras with footage kept at least thirty days, dusk-to-dawn lighting, deadbolts and window locks, secured pool gates, a crime-prevention assessment, and employee training. The burden is on the complex to prove it really did those things, and a camera that was off or a gate that did not lock is where that presumption fails.
Premises cases against apartment owners and landlords are the heart of what I do, and I am a member of the National Association of Premises Liability Attorneys with a heavy premises trial background. I represent injured people, not insurance companies. I came up in the courtroom as a public defender, where I tried case after case and cross-examined witnesses constantly, and I carry that same trial readiness into every claim against a property owner who let a hazard fester. What moves an insurer to pay fair value is knowing I am willing to put the case in front of a jury, and I am. I handle your case personally, from the first call through trial. Learn more about my background.
What the landlord owed you, and where
A landlord’s responsibility often turns on where the injury happened, because the law splits the property into areas the landlord controls and areas the tenant controls. The common areas, the stairwells, walkways, parking lots, laundry rooms, lighting, and shared entries, stay under the landlord’s control, and the landlord owes a duty to keep them in reasonably safe condition, to inspect them, and to repair known dangers (Mansur v. Eubanks, 401 So. 2d 1328 (Fla. 1981); Youngblood v. Pasadena at Pembroke Lakes South, Ltd., 882 So. 2d 1097 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)). Inside the leased unit the picture is narrower, though Florida’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Fla. Stat. 83.51, still requires a landlord to maintain the structural elements and to comply with applicable building, housing, and health codes. A broken common-area stair, a dark parking lot, a failed handrail, or a walkway defect the landlord knew about and left is ordinary premises negligence on the duty to maintain, not the harder transitory-substance notice case, so pinning the hazard to a common area the landlord controlled is often the whole liability question.
Finding who owned and controlled the property
Apartment injuries carry a defendant problem that a car crash rarely does, because the property behind the property is frequently a stack of entities. A complex may be owned by one company, leased to an operator, managed by a second, and maintained by a third, and any of them may carry the coverage that matters. Florida law follows control rather than the name on the deed, so liability rests on the party in actual possession or control of the dangerous area rather than on legal title alone (Regency Lake Apartments Associates, Ltd. v. French, 590 So. 2d 970 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)). That is why the work starts with tracing the owner, the management company, and any maintenance contractor from the property appraiser and the state corporate records, and with pulling the lease, since a lease can shift who was responsible for the exact spot where the injury happened. Naming the right party, and every party that shared control, is what keeps a good case from being lost to a summary judgment on who owed the duty.
When the danger was a crime, not a broken step
Some apartment injuries come from a person rather than a condition, an assault, a robbery, or a shooting on a poorly secured property, and those cases run on a different track. A landlord can be responsible when a criminal attack was foreseeable, usually from prior crime on or around the property, and reasonable security would have prevented or reduced it. Since 2023, owners of multifamily residential properties have a presumption against liability under Fla. Stat. 768.0706, and it is narrower than owners often suggest, because it applies only if the property substantially implemented every security measure the statute lists, the burden to prove that is on the owner, and it is rebuttable rather than immunity. A camera system that was not recording, lighting below the required level, or a missing crime-prevention assessment can keep the presumption from applying at all. Because these security cases carry their own law, they are covered in full on the Negligent Security page.
What we gather
We pull the maintenance and repair records, the work orders, and the prior complaints about the same condition, and on a security case we pull the calls for service to the address, the prior incident reports, and the crime history of the area. We also read the lease and any clause the landlord will wave at you, because Florida construes those clauses against the landlord and they rarely do what the landlord claims.
The deadline
For a premises incident on or after March 24, 2023, Florida gives you two years to file suit, under Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a). That window is shorter than it used to be, and the proof that wins these cases moves faster than the legal clock, so a demand to preserve records and footage should go out early.
An apartment injury case usually comes down to what the landlord controlled and what it knew, and I build it from the complaints, the work orders, the lease, and the maintenance history the property generated and would rather not produce. I trace every owner, manager, and contractor who shared control, hold a landlord to the common areas it was responsible for and the code duties it cannot contract away, and where the danger was a crime I hold it to the full security checklist the law requires rather than a shield it did not earn. I represent injured tenants and their families, not property owners or management companies.
Common Questions
What is a landlord responsible for in Florida?
Keeping the common areas reasonably safe: the stairs, walkways, parking lots, laundry rooms, lighting, and locks that residents and guests rely on. That duty to maintain the shared parts of the property stays with the landlord and does not pass to the tenant.
I was attacked or my unit was broken into. Can I hold the complex responsible?
Possibly, as a negligent-security claim, if prior crime made the attack foreseeable and the complex failed to provide reasonable security. Under Fla. Stat. 768.0706 a complex that substantially implements specified security measures earns a presumption against liability, but the burden is on the complex to prove it really put those measures in place and kept them working.
I fell on a broken stair in a common area. What do I have to prove?
That the landlord knew, or should have known, about the broken stair and failed to fix it or warn about it. A permanent defect like a broken stair runs on the duty to maintain, and the landlord is charged with knowing the condition of its own property, so it cannot simply claim it never noticed.
What if my lease says the landlord isn't responsible for injuries?
Florida courts read those clauses narrowly and construe them strictly against the landlord who wrote them. A lease generally cannot sign away the landlord's duty to keep common areas reasonably safe, and it cannot shield gross negligence or intentional conduct.
How long do I have to file?
Generally two years from the date you were hurt, under Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a), for incidents on or after March 24, 2023. Evidence like prior-crime records, repair history, and footage moves fast, so it is best to act early.
Related: Negligent security cases, Premises liability overview, Personal injury overview, and About Rory Safir.
Can I sue my landlord if I was hurt in a common area?
Often yes. A landlord keeps control of the shared parts of a property, the stairs, walkways, parking, laundry, and lighting, and owes a duty to keep them reasonably safe, to inspect them, and to fix known dangers. If you were hurt in a common area by a condition the landlord created or knew about and failed to repair in a reasonable time, that is a premises claim on the duty to maintain. Where the injury came from a crime rather than a physical defect, a different set of rules about foreseeability and security applies.
This page is general information about Florida premises liability law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The governing authorities include the common-law duty to maintain, Fla. Stat. 768.0706 (multifamily security presumption), 768.81 (comparative fault), and 95.11(5)(a) (two-year limitations). Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
