Transcript of Video
Occupiers liability will vary depending on which of the three categories of relationship exist; occupier and visitor, occupier and trespasser, and non-occupiers.
Occupiers liability surrounds damage incurred on anothers property
First, to occupiers liability to visitors. The primary Act governing this area is the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 which states that: an occupier is a person with control over the property , the Act overrules common law principles in the relevant areas , an occupier has a common duty of care , which he may modify , however he should also be aware that a higher degree of care will be required for children , but that visitors should guard against risks which arise from the purpose of their visit . There are also rules determining what should be taken into account when determining if the occupier is liable, first, simply warning of the danger does not absolve the occupier, unless the warning allowed the visitor to be reasonably safe , and secondly, if damage is caused by the faulty work of a third party the courts will determine if the occupier was reasonable to assume the third party was competent . Finally there are a couple of sections describing some of the rules with regards to contractors, the main point being that if they are permitted on the premises they are a visitor and so must be afforded a common duty of care .
The Occupiers Liability Act 1984 surrounds unlawful visitors, before this; trespassers had very little in the way of protection, an occupier only owed them a duty of ‘common humanity ’. Under section 1 subsection 3 of the Act, an occupier has a duty towards a trespasser if: he is aware of a danger on his property, he knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that a person may come into the vicinity of that danger, and the occupier may reasonably be expected to protect against that danger. The occupier has a duty to protect the trespasser from that danger , this protection can be afforded by way of a warning sign . This duty only extends to personal injury, not damage to property .
A person becomes a trespasser once they act beyond their license, as seen in Tomlinson where a man had a right to be in a park, but became a trespasser when he ignored the no swimming sign and dived into the lake.
Certain problems arise in the law when a non-occupier is being pursued. The two acts surrounding this are the Defective Premises Act 1972 and the Latent Damage Act 1986. This generally applies where a person has sold a house to another, and the house then turns out to be faulty. As the seller is no longer the occupier they generally cannot be held liable, the same goes for various inspection agencies who may be inaccurate in their reports causing people to buy faulty houses. For non-occupiers the usual rules still apply to pure economic loss, and for personal injury the non-occupier will be held liable where it was reasonable for them to remove the danger and unreasonable for the occupier to run the risk of injury .
