Legal Help When Buying and Selling Property

Are Your Responsible For Injuries At Your Swimming Pool?

23 February 2018 by Louise Boyd

While a swimming pool can be a great way to add some fun to your backyard, they are a potential danger to those that use them. As the person who owns the swimming pool, you can be the one held responsible for injuries that happen to other people. That said, it can be very confusing to know what situations you are liable for. Here is some basic info on liability you should know as a pool owner.

Know About Premises Liability

The legal concept of premises liability is about how owners are responsible for safety concerns when visitors are using the property. There is a legal responsibility to keep your pool area safe, which includes preventing dangerous conditions that can cause an injury. Guests that become injured due to not demonstrating a reasonable amount of care could potentially say you are liable for what happened.

For example, if you have a diving board that is broken, it is your responsibility to not allow people to use the equipment until it is fixed.

Know About Visitor Types

There are several kinds of visitors that can be on your property. A guest is defined as an invitee if the pool is used for a commercial purpose. For example, anybody that uses a public pool is considered an invitee, even if they did not directly pay to use the pool.

Friends and family members that use your pool during social gatherings are known as licensees. This is what you will most likely have for a backyard pool, since people are allowed onto your property to use the pool without any financial gain in mind.

Trespassers are people that use your pool without your permission. However, you still must take a reasonable amount of care to prevent people from using the pool, such as putting a fence around your yard and locking the gate. This is because pools can be viewed as attractive nuisances. If a child can easily illegally access your pool, and becomes injured in the process, you could still be found liable for their injuries.

Overall, the best way to prevent liability in a pool injury is to use common sense. Secure the pool, be around to supervise it when it is in use, let people know to behave appropriately, and discourage bad behavior. If you find yourself being sued for an injury that occurred in your pool, work with a local personal injury lawyer from a place like Walsh Fewkes Sterba to help fight it for you.

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