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Request A Call HereAs the most populous city in the United States, New York City relies on numerous apartment buildings to house residents. In fact, there are currently more than 2 million occupied rental apartments alone, and ¾ of the population lives in rental housing. Because residents rent or lease their apartments, rather than owning them outright, the responsibility for maintaining these buildings in “reasonably safe” condition usually falls upon the building’s owner, managing agent, or landlord. Unfortunately, some buildings are not kept in an acceptable condition, which makes accidents such as slip and falls, a far too common thing that we see at Banville Law.
As we all know, apartment buildings in New York can be particularly dangerous places to live. Potential slip and fall hazards are numerous in apartment buildings and condos, from spilled liquids to careless, ongoing construction work, to unprofessional electrical work.
If you were injured in an apartment or condo slip and fall accident, contact the experienced lawyers at Banville Law. Our attorneys have been representing victims for decades, employing our legal expertise, aggressive advocacy, and compassionate perspective on personal injury law to obtain numerous high-value settlements and verdicts.
Slip and fall accidents in New York City’s apartment buildings are often complicated. Many cases first appear to be relatively simple instances of “premises liability,” in which a landlord, managing agent, or owner knew, or should have known, about a potential hazard but did nothing to fix it.
Yet, on closer inspection, the high volume of managers and residents in apartment buildings make assigning liability for a slip and fall accident difficult. What if another tenant spilled liquid on the floor and you fell, suffering serious injury, only moments later? There would have been no way for your landlord to know about the spill to prevent your fall. Determining responsibility in these more complicated circumstances is the task of our experienced attorneys.
Unlike an apartment, condominium housing, or “condos” for short, are individually-owned portions of a larger building. At first, there seems to be no landlord, or managing agent, to hold responsible. So who owns the entire condominium?
In New York City, condominium buildings are owned by an association formed from the individual property owners living there. This “Homeowners Association,” or HOA, manages the condo. Generally, slip and fall accidents that occur inside a person’s own condo are not eligible for personal injury lawsuits, because the victim was responsible for the conditions of their own condo. However, in many condominiums, the condition of common areas, like hallways, elevators, patios or courtyards, and kitchens, are the responsibility of the HOA.
In the event of an accident, victims may be entitled to pursue compensation in a lawsuit in the New York courts. As we’ve already seen, the legalities surrounding condominium ownership, and therefore liability, are extremely intricate. In order to hold an HOA responsible for their negligence in a condo, victims should seek the help of experienced trial lawyers.
We’ve already mentioned the extremely high amount of rental housing in New York City, but how does that break down by borough?
Brooklyn is currently home to the highest concentration of rental apartments in NYC, with 662,615 units.
Coming in a close second is Manhattan, with 589,885 units of rental housing. Many of these units are in large high-rise buildings, with 190,000 apartment buildings that hold over 100 units. Understandably, many personal injury lawsuits filed in Manhattan involve defective elevators and stairways.
The borough of Queens comes in third with 444,663 apartments. Unlike Manhattan, most apartments in Queens are in relatively small buildings, with more than half located in apartment buildings with only 1 – 4 rental units.
There are currently 390,348 apartments located in the Bronx. The apartment buildings in the Bronx are among New York City’s oldest, coming in at an average 78 years old. Landlords and managing companies operating apartment buildings in the Bronx must keep careful watch over the conditions of their properties to prevent slip and fall accidents.
A distant fifth in our roster, Staten Island is home to only 59,281 rental units, the vast majority of which are in small apartment buildings. Staten Island’s apartments are the youngest in NYC, at an average of 38 years. But modern appliances and recent construction don’t prevent Staten Island’s apartments from a high incidence of slip and fall accidents.
Learn more about how our injury attorneys assist injured victims with Office Building Trip and Fall Accidents in New York.
