What Is a Premises Owner's Legal Duty of Care?
In most situations, property owners owe visitors a legal duty of care. The duty of care that a property owner owes to a property visitor depends primarily upon whether the property visitor is a business invitee, licensee, or trespasser. A business invitee is an individual who goes onto someone else's premises to benefit the premises owner. Classic examples of business invitees are individuals patronizing a store, shopping mall, shopping center, or restaurant. Property owners owe business invitees the highest available legal duty of care. Specifically, a property owner or manager must promptly warn about or correct known dangerous conditions or hazards on their premises. They also must regularly inspect their premises for potentially unknown hazards. If they encounter a problem during an inspection, they must promptly warn about or correct it. On the other hand, Licensees are typically social guests – or individuals who go onto someone else's premises for their own benefit rather than the property owner's benefit. Premises owners must warn about or correct known dangerous conditions on their premises for social guests. Finally, trespassers are individuals who enter someone else's premises without permission from the owner. In most situations, the property owner does not owe a trespasser any legal duty of care. However, if the property owner knows about the trespasser's regular presence on the premises, they may owe the trespasser some basic duty of reasonable care. In some situations, a property visitor's status on the property may change. For example, an individual may enter the property as a business invitee, but if they remain on the property after hours, they start to trespass. Consequently, the property owner's duty of care toward them may change, given their change in status.