NJ judge and ruling on landlord "duty to care"

[Mark F.]

Was sent this by my mentor which an attorney sent to him. Very interesting. Judges ruling seems reasonable. Summary is below but not sure how to attach pdf for full ruling if anyone wanted to read it. This could be cited as case law in the future but something to think about. 

I have it in my calender as reoccurring tasks to check my units every 6 months, no exceptions. If I allowed pets it would be every 4 months. I'm sure for those who have a PM you've really got to remind them and follow up. I've also told every tenant to always notify me asap of issues but I know you can't always rely on them. 

"Please see Kamel v. Panyrok Group, Inc. released yesterday by the Appellate Division re-stating that landlord’s have a duty to conduct reasonable inspections to discover defective conditions (including to business invitees on the premises), however noting that liability would require constructive or actual knowledge of the defect. This was a slip and fall case and the landlord was found to not have liability.
This may be informative for any NJ landlord clients. Here is the relevant legal duty description:
Under the duty element, a property owner owes a business invitee “reasonable care to make the premises safe, including the duty to conduct a reasonable inspection to discover defective conditions . . . A landlord has a duty to exercise reasonable care to guard against foreseeable dangers arising from use of portions of the rental property over which the landlord retains control. Thus, the owner owes an affirmative duty to inspect the premises and is required to discover and eliminate dangerous conditions, to maintain the premises in safe condition, and to avoid creating conditions that would render the premises unsafe.

Owners of a premises are generally not liable for injuries caused by a defect if they have no actual or constructive notice and no reasonable opportunity to discover the defect . . . A defendant has constructive notice when the condition existed “for such a length of time as reasonably to have resulted in knowledge and correction had the defendant been reasonably diligent. . . Constructive notice can be inferred in various ways including from the “characteristics of the dangerous condition giving rise to the slip and fall . . . or from eyewitness testimony . . . "