Personal Injury on Private Property

[belly]

What is the name of your state? CA

A Tenant claims to have an injury that occured on my property. When the person rented the room, they were made aware of the condition of the house and any hazards surrounding. It is an old house that needs work. They chose to live there. The person signed a release of liability, stating that they were aware of the condition of the house and that I would not be held liable for any injury caused.

I do not have homeowners Insurance.

Do they have a case? Thank You!

 

[ALawyer]

There is not an easy answer, and you now see why people buy homeowners/tenant insurance -- not only to protect them against liability if they are found to be at fault, but also for the cost of defending claims, even when wholly unjustified -- and thi sclaim is not wholly unjustified.

A key legal issue involves the extent to which public policy operates to preclude waivers of liability for the type of dangerous condition your premises possessed. As a matter of good public policy some conditions are deemed so dangerous that the law will simply not permit waivers, otherwise some landlords would be able to demand these waivers and thus be able to operate wholly disregarding the legal requirements established by law.

A secondary issue would be whether the waiver that was signed was adequate, and sufficiently clear and consipcuous enough to cover the condition (for example, if the tenant signed it, but his child was hurt, you'd be out of luck -- the child did not sign).