Who Is Responsible If A Child Injures Themselves In Your Home?
As the legal occupier of a property, whether that is a house
, flat or other dwelling, you have a duty of care towards anyone who visits your home. If children are likely to visit your property, however infrequently, you should take special care to ensure that your home is safe for them and take any precautions necessary to prevent them from having an accident. Failure to do so may leave you open to potential legal action for a compensation claim, should a child suffer a mishap in your home in which they are injured or worse.
Your Responsibilities Towards Children In Your Home:-
Under the Occupiers Liability (Scotland) Act 1960, the occupier is responsible for the safety of any individual entering their premises (both indoors and outdoors). The act places a common duty of care on you to take any reasonable precautions to ensure that visitors to your home are safe. In the case of rented accommodation, who is responsible as the legal occupier may vary according to the contract, and joint responsibility may be held between the tenant and the landlord.
Scottish law (unlike its English counterpart) does not specifically distinguish that a different degree of care exists towards children than to adult visitors. But the degree to which care and precautions taken may be deemed reasonable will inevitably be different where children are concerned.
This means that when assessing the risks and hazards in your home, you need to be extra-vigilant of the kinds of risks that are likely to be an issue when children are in the home. This might be the case if you have young relatives round to the house, or the children of friends. Under Scottish law, the same duty of care also exists to trespassers, such as children who have entered a private garden to retrieve a football, as well as visitors who are invited onto the property by the owner.
Taking Responsibility For The Safety Of Child Visitors
There are many things in the home and garden which, while they might be reasonably safe for adults, present a hazard for young children. Children under five are particularly at risk, and in 2010/11, ISD Scotland recorded 1,904 hospital admissions in the under-five age group as a result of accidents in the home.
Examples Of Risks To Children Include:
- Electrical sockets
- Standing water (bathtubs, swimming pools, ponds, even buckets of water)
- Kitchen facilities (cookers, stoves etc)
- Falls (from stairs, trees, ledges, windows etc)
- Slips
- Objects such as TVs being pulled over onto the child
- Accidental ingestion of poisonous/ hazard substances (pills, medicines, berries etc)
If a child suffers an accident in your home, you may be taken to court and pursued for compensation for physical, psychological and financial (treatment costs) as a result.
One of the key things to bear in mind, and which the courts will consider, is that children cannot be expected to fully understand or be aware of dangers in the same way that adults are. It is the duty of the occupier of the home to ensure that the environment is safe for any children that visit, and to take any necessary and reasonable precautions.
by: Nick Jervis
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