CAN A CONDO ASSOCIATION IN FLORIDA BE SUED FOR INJURIES ON THE CONDO PROPERTY?

Yes. When an injury accident is caused by the negligence of (meaning the mistake of) the condo association in Florida then that condo association can be sued by the injured guest or resident. These injuries most often occur in the common areas—where the condo association is supposed to maintain those areas.  The injury-causing situation may be one that is a temporary hazard such as something blocking a walkway or fluid on a common area floor. The injury-causing situation may also be a long-standing hazard that is the result of the condo association not engaging in maintenance or repair of walking surfaces, equipment, gates, roads, fences, etc.

The law on this is found at Florida Chapter 718, which relates to the responsibilities of the condo association to maintain their premises. Florida also has a common stance that property owners:1. have a duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition and 2. to warn guests and residents of dangerous conditions which the association knows of, or should know about. One omission that we see with some frequency is as to the grounds of the condo association and the landscaped areas. Yes, some condo associations may have employee landscapers, but for most, independent contractors perform the landscaping tasks that the condo association would otherwise have to do themselves. The common in Florida law holds that a property owner may delegate the task of maintaining the property to a third-party landscaping service; however, the condo association may not delegate the responsibility for the maintaining a safe common area.

In a recent case www.FightingForFamilies.com attorneys filed suit for our client who was severely injured, because the condo association had delegated their landscaping task to a third-party landscaper.  Though the condo association delegated the task for landscaping to an outside company, the condo association cannot escape the responsibility for the dangerous condition which was not corrected nor blocked off from guests or residents of the condo association. That failure to act on the part of the chosen landscaper goes back against the condo association.

WHAT IF I AM A RESIDENT OF THE CONDOS?

The condo association owes the same legal duty to you as a resident of a condo that it owes to a guest of the condos. Again the two fundamental obligations are to 1. maintain the common premises in a reasonably safe condition, and 2. to warn of hazards of which the condo association knows or should have known about. Specifically, the Florida caselaw holds: (“Where there is a nondelegable duty, the employer hiring an independent contractor to perform services encompassed within that duty is vicariously liable when those services are performed negligently.”); McCall v. Ala. Bruno’s, Inc., 647 So.2d 175, 178 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994).

What this means is that if the contractor fails and causes injury to the condo association’s resident or guest, the condo association may be held responsible for the contractor’s injury-causing actions or inactions. It is explained as follows:

[T]he owner may not contract away his or her legal responsibility for the proper performance of the nondelegable duty. U.S. Sec. Servs. Co7-p., 665 So.2d at 270; Atl. Coast Dev. Corp. v. Napoleon Steel Contractors, Inc., 385 So.2d 676, 679 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980) (“`Nondelegable’ applies to the liabilities arising from the delegated duties if breached.”).

Armiger v. Associated Outdoor Clubs, 48 So. 3d 864, 875 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2010).

So, the answer is YES, if you or a family member have been injured within the grounds of a condo association’s property, then you can sue that condo association. If you believe you have a case contact us at www.FightingForFamilies.com to find out more about your rights and case value. We have been fighting for families from the Tampa Bay area and throughout all of Florida for 25 years.

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