Q: Can the owners of the apartment complex be held liable for not securing their premises?
My daughter, after coming home from work around midnight, and after parking her car in her gated apartment complex. was held up by 3-4 guys, choke held her and snatched her bag. When she tried to pursue them as they fled, they came back to stop her by shooting a gun grazing her chin. Then the assailants made their escape. There was a video record in the management office of what happened and the incident was reported to the police. My question is: Can the owners and management of the apartment complex be held liable for the incident? My daughter until now is traumatized and terrified. Even to come out of the house.
A: While I cannot speak to your specific case without more information, I can tell you that tenants are entitled to expect that an apartment complex will be reasonably safe. A property manager has certain duties with regard to the safety of tenants on the premises, including providing adequate security. A property manager, however, is clearly not in a position to prevent all potential criminal acts. I would recommend privately consulting with an attorney so that you can determine some of the following key issues: what the property owner/manager's specific duty might have been; whether the property owner/manager failed to live up to that duty; and whether those failures directly caused the danger.
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