Your Landlord Is Responsible For Keeping Your NYC Building Safe

This month we covered the story of a Bronx apartment building that was in terrible disrepair – the roof was leaking, the hot water was broken, mold was growing on the walls, locks were missing on outside doors. After three years of misery, the tenants have come together to sue their New York City landlord and demand a safe living environment.

What the landlord, Frank Palazzolo, of Semper Fi property management, may not have known is that if one of his tenants was injured in his building, he could have been sued for premises liability. If there was a known danger in the apartment building, such as a broken step or uneven floor, and someone fell or slipped due to that danger, Palazzolo would have been a negligent landlord. In some cases, Palazzolo would be responsible to pay for the injury victim’s medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages. As long as you can prove that your landlord was aware of the problem before it caused injury and did nothing to fix the problem, you could have a New York slip and fall lawsuit or premises liability case.

Here are just a few examples of how a landlord could be responsible for your apartment building injury:

• You report mold growing in your bathroom, but the landlord does nothing to examine or clean the mold. Soon, your family begins to have respiratory issues because of the air conditions in your apartment.
• Several different NYC apartment building tenants report that the lock on the front door of the building is broken, but nothing is done to fix or replace the lock. A few months later, a man breaks into the building and assaults one of the residents – an attack that could have been prevented if the building security were better.
• The lights go out in one of the floor’s hallway, making it difficult to see. When one of the residents trips on an uneven floor and breaks her hip, the landlord is to blame for her fall, her injury, and the related costs.