When we have a problem at home, say our central heating stops working, we phone the correct company to come and fix it. Then, hopefully, the heating is fixed and all is good. However that’s not always the case. Calling someone out to fix something in your home may just be the beginning to a long road of compensation claims.
When we let someone in our home to carry out a job for us, it is us who are paying them to do that job, so therefore we are employing them for the work they are carrying out on our property. This means that under healthy and safety regulations that it is us who are responsible for that persons safety.
So if you are a workman and often carry out work on other people’s houses and you trip over a floor tile or fall off a ladder it is the homeowner who is responsible. This comes after a story in the Daily Mail about a Polish builder who fell off his ladder when repairing a leak in the homeowner’s garage.
Polish labourer Tomasz Kmiecic, 31, fell off the ladder when the homeowner refused to let him walk through her house to get to roof because she said his boots were too muddy. The builder blames Mrs Isaacs, the homeowner, for the accident because she prevented him from using a safer access route to the roof via the bedroom window.
The labourer suffered life-changing injuries after slipping from a ladder which was too short for the job, while repairing a leaky garage roof at Nadia Isaacs’ home in North London. Mrs Isaac is now facing a six-figure compensation claim. Robert Allen QC, representing Mr Kmiecic, said the case would provide an excellent opportunity to give definitive ruling on the extent of householder’s duties towards workmen.
If you are a contractor and regularly work on other people’s homes then it is important that you are aware of your rights. It is also important that you are insured in case you become involved in an accident. For more information or if you have been involved in an accident whilst carrying out work on someone’s property then the Injury Lawyers can help you.
For free legal advice or to pursue a injury compensation claim at a no win no fee basis give us a call today, or simply fill in an inquiry form on our website and one of our lawyers will call you back.
