Fall due to communal staircase in poor state of repair

21-year-old Ms H had complained to her landlord, Cross Keys Homes, Peterborough, on three previous occasions about the poor state of repair of the communal staircase but the company had ignored her complaints.

As she was leaving for work one day, she reached the second of three flights of stairs and tripped on a loose tile.  Ms H says that there had always been a fair amount of tiles missing and the staircase was really dangerous, but the landlord had simply not been interested.  She had slipped previously and reported it – but to no avail.

Fall leads to serious injuries

On this occasion Ms H was badly injured, breaking her wrist, damaging her ankle and hitting her head – she was unconscious for 3 minutes.   She was taken to hospital in an ambulance, when she was given treatment and pain relief and kept under observations due to concussion.   Her symptoms were severe for six weeks.

Tracey Dickinson

Tracey negotiates compensation 

Ms H felt that the accident was simply not her fault and that Cross Keys Homes had failed to maintain the stairs properly.  She contacted Graysons for help in finding redress.  Tracey took up her case and contacted the landlord who accepted liability and Tracey was able to negotiate a settlement of £2,600 for Ms H, bringing the case to a conclusion within fourteen months of the date of the accident.

All landlords have a duty to maintain their property so that it is safe for users – this includes common parts.  If they don’t and you have an accident as a result of their negligence, you may be able to claim personal injury compensation.  If this has happened to you, contact our injury and accident experts now for a no obligation discussion about your matter.

No legal help if Government imposes changes

In its autumn statement last year, the Government announced proposed changes to claiming personal injury compensation this year. The planned changes are to:

• Raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims from £1,000 to £5,000, which means that claims of less than £5,000 will be transferred to the small claims court and solicitor fees will not be recoverable – leaving some injured people with no legal help or support, and
• Remove the right to compensation for ‘minor’ soft tissue injuries (includes whiplash)

If these changes go ahead as planned, Graysons’ experts would not have been able to help Ms H as her claim was for less than £5000 and she would have had to make the claim, with no legal knowledge or expertise, herself, in the Small Claims Court.

We think that these changes are unfair and will restrict people’s right to proper redress if they have an accident or injury that is not their fault.

If you feel that the government’s proposed changes are unfair and that victims of accidents and injury should be able to claim compensation and obtain legal advice, and you would like to voice your opinion, please sign the petition.

Graysons will continue to help victims of personal injury claims wherever possible so please do contact our specialist team now if you need help.

You can find out more about claiming compensation if you have had an accident or injury on our web pages.