How Safe Should an Apartment Be?

Safety and security should always be a top consideration for any home. When you own your home, you get to choose to make the right safety and security measures you feel are necessary to protect your home; however, if you live in an apartment or college housing, these considerations aren’t only yours, but the responsibility of the landlord.

Apartment Complexes

Apartment complexes provide housing for millions of people across the country. Just as any house is different from the next, apartment complexes differ. Regardless, the apartment staff itself is responsible for the upkeep, safety, and security of the entire complex. Part of this responsibility is ensuring that any issues or maintenance requests concerning the health and safety of tenants are handled and fixed in a timely manner.  This includes broken windows and doors as well as malfunctioning window locks. Break-ins and invasion threats become more real when there’s a broken window or door lock. If somebody were to break into a home through a broken entrance that the apartment staff has been informed about could pose responsibility on the complex itself for not upholding the safety of its tenants. This is also true of any special considerations that should be made for an apartment’s specific location; ground floor apartments in high-crime areas should have window grates or locks to be adequately secured.

College Housing

Many people invest in housing near colleges simply for the purpose of renting to college students. A common problem with this kind of college housing is that the property owners/landlords often don’t care for the property like they should. College students might sometimes be rowdy, but more importantly, they are focused on their school work. One of the reasons property owners choose the college housing market is because they feel that they can almost always guarantee residents without having to pay close attention to the property itself.

When a landlord neglects to care for their house or relies on college students to take care of it for them, there are often problems that can arise. Cleanliness, property upkeep, and security are all common results of private college housing and can often result in home invasions, robberies, and even more property damage. Similar to apartment housing, people living in college housing rely on the landlords to maintain and upkeep the property, including safety and security measures. Different, though, is that many college housing landlords don’t present a similar urgency to address and fix these kinds of issues.

Have you been injured while on someone else’s property? Christie Farrell Lee & Bell has an experienced team of Indianapolis premises liability attorneys who can help you explore your options.