What is the name of your state? California
Sorry about the repost from landlord/ tenant issues, but this forum better suits my questions.
I have a concern regarding the staircase at a property I recently moved into about one month ago. The building is a 3 story, 4unit, condo complex. I am currently renting one of the units from a real estate management LLC.
Incident: I was descending the staircase of the residential condo I am renting and as I placed my hand on the handrail it ripped out from the wall and I fell down the staircase resulting in ankle/foot injury.
Facts:
The hand rail is attached to the drywall only and not into any studs or wall supports. They are attached using a screw and a plastic sleeve for drywall mounting. These clearly can't support much weight.
- I can't find much info about residential building codes, but from some research i believe handrails must be able to support 200lbs of pressure; these handrails clearly cannot. (http://www.sandiego.gov/development-services/industry/pdf1998/bnl10-05.pdf ) found on page 8, section XVI, statement #4
Upon further investigation into the handrails I noticed more signs of concern:
1- there are 4 other handrails attached in similar fashion in staircases. These rails are also about to fall out of the wall if there is any moderate amount of weight applied to them.
2- Upon inspecting the walls I can see that the rails have fallen out before because there are patch marks where they used to be mounted. Leading me to believe the landlord knew of this problem yet failed to make the rails safe after the first incident. I believe this was very negligent of the landlord.
Can anyone assist me on the legality of this situation? I greatly appreciate your help, comments, and suggestion for action.
Sorry about the repost from landlord/ tenant issues, but this forum better suits my questions.
I have a concern regarding the staircase at a property I recently moved into about one month ago. The building is a 3 story, 4unit, condo complex. I am currently renting one of the units from a real estate management LLC.
Incident: I was descending the staircase of the residential condo I am renting and as I placed my hand on the handrail it ripped out from the wall and I fell down the staircase resulting in ankle/foot injury.
Facts:
The hand rail is attached to the drywall only and not into any studs or wall supports. They are attached using a screw and a plastic sleeve for drywall mounting. These clearly can't support much weight.
- I can't find much info about residential building codes, but from some research i believe handrails must be able to support 200lbs of pressure; these handrails clearly cannot. (http://www.sandiego.gov/development-services/industry/pdf1998/bnl10-05.pdf ) found on page 8, section XVI, statement #4
Upon further investigation into the handrails I noticed more signs of concern:
1- there are 4 other handrails attached in similar fashion in staircases. These rails are also about to fall out of the wall if there is any moderate amount of weight applied to them.
2- Upon inspecting the walls I can see that the rails have fallen out before because there are patch marks where they used to be mounted. Leading me to believe the landlord knew of this problem yet failed to make the rails safe after the first incident. I believe this was very negligent of the landlord.
Can anyone assist me on the legality of this situation? I greatly appreciate your help, comments, and suggestion for action.