A Housing Disrepair Injury

Nine year old Sam was living in a rented property with her parents and siblings. When they moved in the carpet was in a poor state. Their landlord said to rip it up and the carpet would be replaced. After doing so, Sam’s mother called the landlord a few times to ask when it would be done and warned that the floorboards were loose. The landlord did nothing about it and the carpet went un-replaced. One afternoon while walking through the house Sam tripped on a floorboard and fell onto a protruding nail, causing a gash to her knee.

The landlord denied that they were told of the problem and even denied Sam’s family were in the property at the time of the incident; even saying her family had left the property in a very poor state. We issued proceedings against the landlord and got statements from neighbours to confirm that the family was in fact living at the property. We sent the statements to the landlord who originally rejected our first offer to settle, but eventually a figure was agreed which included damages for Sam’s injuries and the deposit money paid by her mum which had been withheld when they left the property.

Edward Seddon
Partner, Irvings Law