How Safe Is the Apartment You Want to Rent? Key Questions to Ask a Landlord Before Signing a Lease
A sense of security and safety for you and your family is key to making a house feel like a home.
Unfortunately, many landlords don’t provide, and in some cases aren’t legally required to share, crime and safety information to a potential tenant.
“Along with costs and amenities, tenants should be prepared to ask a variety of questions about safety measures before signing a lease and moving into a new apartment or home” says Michael Haggard. Haggard is the Managing Partner of The Haggard Law Firm (www.haggardlawfirm.com) which has made a mark successfully representing tenants who are injured or killed by someone committing a crime that could have been prevented if the landlord of the property where the crime occurs had taken proper security measures.
Although each negligent security case may bring about different facts or require ingenuity with your strategy, there are certain elements of your case that remain constant. One of those elements is crime statistics. The importance of crime statistics in your case cannot be stated enough. Not only do these statistics help establish notice and foreseeability to the defendants, they are also a treasure trove of information.
With respect to notice and foreseeability, your crime statistics establish what the defendants “knew or should have known” prior to and at the time of subject incident. So what should you request? You begin by requesting the calls for service and all police reports for the subject property. This needs to be done in one request. From there, depending on your jurisdiction, you will order up to a mile radius for the calls for service. Once you receive each respective request, you must synthesize the data. For example, you will detail the violent and non-violent crimes and their frequency on the property. This provides a picture of what type of crime was going on at the property. It provides you with the ability to illustrate to the jury the level of crime occurring and can be used effectively to show that it is an improbability for a defendant to be unaware of the police being called to the property.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Managing Partner Michael Haggard was just voted to become the President Elect of the National Crime Victim Bar Association. Haggard has been a member of the NCVBA for 15 years and has been a board member for 10.
Haggard Law Firm attorney Pedro Echarte was interviewed for a story detailing the recent settlement in the case of a young father who died in a mobile home fire. As the article describes, an inadequate number of smoke detectors was at the heart of the eventual $2.3 million settlement.
Haggard Law Firm attorney Todd Michaels was named a Most Effective Lawyer of South Florida, in the Personal Injury category, by the Daily Business Review.
Haggard Law Firm Attorney Todd Michaels
Today, the periodical published its article detailing the case cited in the announcement of the honor Michaels, a $3.1 million settlement to the family of 21-year-old Charles Lucas, who was shot to death outside a Miami nightclub in 2011 while he tried to diffuse an altercation.
The Daily Business Review has just released its list of 2016 Most Effective Lawyers.
We are proud to report that Haggard Law Firm attorneys Todd Michaels and Pedro Echarte were the only two lawyers in Miami-Dade County recognized in the Personal Injury category. Michaels was named the Most Effective Lawyer, while Echarte was the only other finalist listed.
The Haggard Law Firm is thrilled to support Generation Nexxt with a second season of our Haggard Helping Hands segment. These segments will appear throughout the youth football season on NBC 6 in South Florida during the Generation Nexxt program which airs at noon.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Jason Brenner was honored Saturday night during the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s 40 Under 40 Outstanding Lawyers of South Florida awards gala.
$10.1 Million Settlement in Negligent Security Case Brought by 22 year old Father Paralyzed in Shooting
Miami, FL – The homeowners association, property manager, and other related entities at a Miami townhome community have agreed to pay more than $10 million dollars to 22-year-old Bryan Perez and his infant son to settle a negligent security lawsuit.
On August 18th 2014, in an attempted armed home invasion robbery, Perez was shot 6 times in his family’s rental unit at the Carmel Lakes townhome community, which is located at 20761 NE 4th Place Miami, Florida 33179. As a result of the crime, Perez was rendered an incomplete paraplegic. Perez had recently moved to the complex with his family and was unaware of its history of crime, which consisted of numerous burglaries and armed robberies. The Haggard Law Firm’s Pedro Echarte who litigated the case says “the community’s security measures were entirely inadequate to protect its residents and tenants.”
On the night of the incident, Perez was on his porch with a friend when three gunmen approached and asked for a safe that was in the home. Perez and his family were the victims of a burglary at the same unit a few months before the subject shooting, had purchased a safe to store their valuables as a result, and the box for that safe was on the porch at the time of the shooting. While demanding Perez and his guest enter the home, Perez attempted to close a sliding glass door in an effort to protect his family, including his then-pregnant girlfriend, mother, and little sister who were all inside the home at the time of the incident. The gunmen proceeded to start shooting through the glass door, hitting Perez multiple times.
Echarte says the evidence against those responsible for needed security at Carmel Lakes was overwhelming, including:
In the article, Marlowe discusses how Wal-Mart is well aware of the frequent crime that takes place on properties across the country. The Haggard Law attorney litigated a case against the world’s number 1 retailer where a woman was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot and brutally raped in her kidnapper’s vehicle over several hours and miles of driving.
The text of the article as it appears in the Daily Business Review:
