Liability - Owner or Management Company

[Brian Stratton]

I have a legal question.  In the case where a property owner is using a management company to manage their property and someone get's hurt due to negligence, i.e. management company does not fix broken stair and tenant falls on stairs, or a tenant complains to the management company about a mold problem, but the company does nothing about it, and the tenent gets sick, who is liable, the management company or the owner of the property, or is it both. What recourse does an owner have to assure something like this won't happen.

I am outlining this under the assumption that the owner is unaware of the problem, as the tenant is dealing directly with the management company, and the management company is telling the owner everything is "fine and dandy." 

This is a hypothetical situation.  I pose the scenario to prepare myself on what could happen when I use a management company to take care of my property. If I actually were in that situation and my management told me there were a probably I would direct them to fix it right away.

Thanks for any insight.