Signs That a Property’s Security Neglected Your Safety

The gate to your apartment complex’s parking lot has been stuck open since July.

The light over the Building C stairwell burned out three weeks ago, and you emailed the management office about it twice. On a Thursday night, a man who didn’t live there followed you into that dark stairwell, and the struggle over your bag ended with a broken wrist.

The police took a report, and as far as the complex was concerned, that settled it, but for a civil claim, though, the gate, the light, and your two emails may matter more than whoever attacked you. When an owner ignores security problems it knows about, a negligent security lawyer can hold the owner responsible for what happened next.

Here are the warning signs, how foreseeability works, what evidence proves it, and how your claim differs from the criminal case.

The Inadequate Security Signs You Walked Past Every Day

Many people who’ve been attacked notice the failures only afterward, thinking back over the weeks before. These are the inadequate security signs that come up again and again:

• Lights that are out or dim in parking lots, stairwells, and entrances
• Locks, gates and doors that are broken or propped open
• Entry systems that let anyone in
• Cameras that are broken, fake, or not recording
• Guards who are scheduled but missing, untrained, or never patrol
• Shrubs or fences that block the view of a walkway
• Complaints from tenants or guests that went unanswered

Lighting is worth a close look because a review of 13 U.S. and British studies summarized by the National Institute of Justice linked better street lighting to a 21 percent drop in crime. For each problem, ask how long it lasted and who knew about it. A bulb that burned out an hour before the attack is different from one tenants reported for three weeks.

Also watch for security that only looks like security. A “24-Hour Video Surveillance” sign doesn’t watch anything. A guard who sits in the lobby all night and never walks the lot is the classic form of failure that security guard negligence claims are built on.

Foreseeability: Did the Owner Have Reason to See It Coming?

Foreseeability means a reasonable property owner would have recognized the risk of a crime like yours. Owners aren’t expected to stop every crime. Property owner liability for crime hinges on whether the owner knew, or should have known, about a real danger and failed to take reasonable steps against it.

Courts measure that in different ways, and while some focus on prior similar crimes on the property, others, including courts in Ohio, weigh the totality of the circumstances, which can include crime at or near the property. Let’s say three cars were broken into at that same lot last spring, and a resident was robbed by the mailboxes in August.

A robbery in that lot in October is hard to call a surprise. With that history, it’s a foreseeable criminal act an owner is expected to guard against.

A 24-hour hotel, a parking garage, and an apartment complex face different risks, so what counts as reasonable security depends on the property. Commercial property safety standards vary by industry, and an owner’s own written security policy can show what it considered reasonable.

If that policy called for nightly patrols and no patrol took place, the policy itself could become evidence against the owner.

How to Check a Property’s Security After the Fact

Some of the best evidence is already on your phone.

• Save every email and text you sent management about poor lighting, lax patrols, or gates left open.
• Save the replies, including the automated or form ones.
• Save photos of the broken light, the open gate, and the spots where cameras should have been. If you can do it safely, go back in daylight and take more pictures before anything gets fixed.
• Get the names and numbers of other tenants and regular customers who might have also complained.
• Write down the police report number of your incident.
• Ask your lawyer about earlier calls to police at the same address, which can show a pattern the owner should have known about.

The rest of all the possible evidence sits in the owner’s files. A lawyer can demand work orders, maintenance requests, incident reports, guard contracts, and patrol logs.

Video is the most urgent, because many camera systems record over older footage on a loop. A lawyer needs to send a preservation letter quickly, before an apartment complex security failure gets erased along with the recording.

The Criminal Case and Your Civil Claim Are Separate

The government prosecutes the person who attacked you, and it has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Your negligent security claim is a civil case against the property owner for their own failures, and it must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.

Your claim doesn’t depend on an arrest or a conviction, so even if the person in the stairwell is never identified, the owner can still be held responsible for the faulty gate and the lights.

Let the Owner’s Own Records Tell the Story

A property owner who ignored a broken gate and a dark stairwell for weeks will have a hard time calling the attack bad luck.

At Thomas Law Offices, we handle negligent security cases nationwide, with offices in Louisville, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Columbia, Missouri, so we know how to get the work orders, patrol logs, and video that show what an owner knew.

If you were hurt on someone else’s property because security fell short, contact our firm for a free consultation.

Bring the police report number, your emails to management, and every photo you have, even the blurry ones taken from the parking lot.