I’m not kidding when I tell you that it’s genuinely quite scary that we take on such a huge volume of claims for personal injury compensation caused by people falling and tripping on defective or missing manhole covers. Personally I don’t walk over them in the street. I’m not superstitious – I’ve just seen the extent of the damage that can be caused.
If you are injured because of a missing or defective manhole cover, you may be entitled to make a claim for personal injury compensation. But what about if the manhole cover is on your own property? Can you still make a claim? It all comes down to the circumstances, notice to those responsible, and the duty that is in place to make sure the area is safe.
Rented Property
Starting with a rented property, it’s normally the case that the duty to ensure that the cover is safe will fall with your landlord. They normally have the overriding duty to make sure that the premises is, from a structural perspective, safe to use. So if you injured yourself due to a defective or missing manhole cover on a rented property, you will normally pursue your landlord.
To make a successful claim, we must prove negligence. We must prove that the landlord has specifically failed in the duty of care that they have for you. So how do we prove that?
Well to prove that they have taken all reasonable steps to look after you, they should have a system of inspection and maintenance in place. If the cover has broken due to weight being put on it and it is clear that the interior rim has eroded away over several years, or clear that the cover has become unstable due to weight being on it over years, then you might have a strong case. If we can clearly show that it hasn’t been maintained, we can allege negligence.
The other common way of winning a claim is if the landlord fails to act when a defect is reasonably reported to them. Let’s say you notice a crack in the cover and you inform your landlord. Six months later they haven’t done anything about it and you, forgetting about the crack, innocently step on the cover and it breaks. I would say that they have been given reasonable notice and ample time to do something about it and have clearly failed. We would probably act for you on a No Win, No Fee basis for a claim like this!
Own Property
What if you own the property? Who is responsible then?
Well you would normally be responsible for your land, but with things like manhole covers it could probably fall within the scope of the utility company’s responsibility, or that of whoever owns the manhole. The same as above could apply – especially if you reported that it was damaged and whoever owns the hole didn’t do anything about it.
So if you have been injured in an accident due to a manhole cover on your property and you want to make a claim for personal injury compensation, call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 today!
