5 Things Your Condo or HOA Won’t Tell You About Negligent Security

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Hey everyone, Michael Mayoral here from Perez Mayoral PA. If you’ve been a victim of a crime in your HOA or condo community, whether that be a break-in, an assault, or potentially something worse, there’s probably a lot your association is not telling you about their responsibilities and their liability. Today, I’m going into the five things that you need to know about negligent security that your HOA or condo association probably is not telling you. Let’s get into it. Number one, there are three possible ways your

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association is liable for crimes occurring on the property. First is if the crime was foreseeable. That can be if similar crimes have happened on the property, if reports about the threat of crime have been reported to the association or if the crimes have occurred in the neighboring vicinity. If there were breakins, assaults, or other crimes either on the association property or in the vicinity, then there’s a good chance that your association should have done something about this. Second is if the association

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voluntarily assumed the duties of security. What Florida law holds is that if an association undertakes to provide security through a vendor or someone else like that, they have a duty to make sure it is done properly. That includes properly selecting the vendor, supervising the vendor, providing security and making sure that the actual security that is promised is being provided. Once they promise security, they have to deliver it properly. Third is if your governing documents specifically require the association to

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provide security, security devices, proper lighting and things of that nature. If your association has a duty under the governing documents to provide that security, them failing to do so is a violation of those governing documents and a violation of the duty that they have to provide security to the resident. Many associations are liable under all three theories of liability, but will attempt to deny each one. Understanding which applies to your situation is crucial to getting relief when you’ve been a victim of a crime in

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an association. Number two, there are a number of security failures that we see quite frequently in Florida and your association is probably committing one of them. We commonly see things like broken or not properly working gates, security cameras that either are not working or are not being properly monitored, lighting that is inadequate and is leaving garages and places where people may be vulnerable to crime, especially vulnerable if somebody can hide and potentially commit a crime against somebody. unlocked areas like

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pools, gyms, laundry rooms, and other points of access to the community. We’ve seen associations fail to warn residents about crime that’s occurring in in the community to give them the chance to take their own precautions and to be especially aware. And mostly we see weak access control, which allows non-residents to enter into buildings either following a resident in or through some other means. And that sadly is a very frequent cause of crimes in communities. There was a recent case in

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Miami Date County where a 17-year-old was sadly stabbed and killed in a building when a non-resident followed a resident through the elevators through the access control and started testing doors within the community, entered into the building and sadly killed one of the residents there. This is a classic example of a crime that could have possibly been prevented by greater access control restrictions. Number three, if you are the victim of a crime in the community, there’s three things that you should do. First, call the

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police and make a report. Now, this is for obvious reasons. If somebody has committed a crime against you, they need to be prosecuted by the proper prosecuting office and the local police agency. Reporting it not only creates a record that this occurred, but starts the wheels in motion so you could get justice in this case. Second, seek medical attention even if your injuries seem minor. The purpose of this is that you sometimes don’t know the full scope of your injuries and you may need medical care that you do not know about.

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Some injuries don’t show symptoms right away and having medical documentation about what happened is crucial. Third, contact an attorney about the case. When these incidents happen, the association’s attorney is usually informed about it and they’re usually forming a game plan. You need an attorney on your side to be able to advise you and potentially react to what the association is doing. You need you need an attorney to try to preserve evidence. Make sure evidence such as videos, prior reports, or things like

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that are not destroyed. You need an attorney to be able to file a case, if you intend to file one, soon after the incident. In Florida, the statute of limitations for negligence claims was changed to 2 years from the date of the incident, which is a very tight time frame. Associations will mobilize their attorneys immediately. You need to do the same. Time is absolutely crucial in these cases. Don’t wait. the evidence needed to prove your case might not be there in months or years after the

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incident. Number four, if the association’s negligence caused the crime which caused you injuries, you can recover a lot more than you might think. Generally, in these cases, we sue to recover for past medical expenses. Not only that, we sue to recover for future medical expenses, for future costs of mental health counseling and treatment and lifetime care. And in these cases, we’re not only able to recover for the physical pain and suffering that you endured, but also for the mental pain

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and suffering and anguish that you suffered as a result of the crime. You can recover for loss of enjoyment of life if your life and quality of life has been affected. And in cases of wrongful death, families can recover for their loss as well. The association can generally be liable for all of it. not just fixing the gate that they failed to fix which caused the crime, but generally what Florida law holds is they become liable for the resulting consequences of those failures. Number five, there is a law firm that handles

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negligent security cases against HOAs and condo associations, and we can help. Here’s the thing. Many times, associations rely on the fact that people are going to have a hard time finding an attorney that handles these types of cases. And I’m happy to say that this is where we come in. Our law firm exclusively represents homeowners against their condo associations and HOAs. But moreover, our firm is led by former insurance defense attorneys. We used to handle the defense in cases involving negligent security, crimes

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occurring on property and all the such. And we know the tactics used on the other side. Now, our firm only represents homeowners. So, we’re able to combine our experience in Hway and condo litigation with our experience in injury law, premises liability, and negligent security litigation to provide flidians who are facing these situations the best representation possible. We offer free consultations in negligent security cases, which have caused injuries. And we typically take these cases on a

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contingency basis, which means that a client doesn’t have to pay for legal fees upfront. We’re able to take on the case, and we only get paid if we recover something for you. If you’re dealing with the situation, give us a call. We will offer you a free consultation, go over the facts of the case, go over all your options, and try to create a plan and a path to get you back to where you were before the crime occurred. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next