While bringing Apartment Guardian onsite has a cascade of positive benefits for employees and employers alike, one often overlooked benefit comes from limiting the liability you, as an employer, are subject to in the event of an onsite attack or event. While many employers assume that any onsite issues will fall under their worker's compensation policy, the truth is that if someone is injured and they seek legal counsel, lawyers can always find a way to place blame back on management. Below are a few things to consider in how Apartment Guardian limits your liability in the event of an unfortunate attack.
Serious and willful: an employer’s main vulnerability in paying out damages from an onsite event comes in cases of serious and willful misconduct. Serious and willful misconduct refers to “significant violation of an employer's duty of care to its workers, whether those workers are employees or independent contractors” Examples of serious and willful misconduct can include ignoring or downplaying a stated safety concern or not providing appropriate safety equipment in order to save money. Have you ever had an onsite employee complain about a creepy tenant or feeling uncomfortable giving a tour? If so, and you did nothing to address it, that can open you up to a serious and willful claim. Serious and willful claims are expensive, costing one half the amount paid out by the worker’s compensation claim and are covered directly by the employer. By addressing your employee concerns and proactively providing onsite security equipment like Apartment Guardian’s fully mobile panic button, you will demonstrate a good faith effort to provide a safe working environment and limit your liability risk in the event something unfortunate happens onsite.
Resident safety: where property managers are specifically vulnerable to lawsuits comes from their interactions with tenants. Residents are under no restrictions to follow the workers compensation claims, and can (and often do) take property managers and owners directly to court if they are injured or killed onsite. A particular area of vulnerability comes from the duty of care laws, which is the “requirement that a person act toward others and the public with the watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would use”. Most duty of care expectations are determined by what the industry standard for safety and attention is. With an emergency services response time that is 8 times faster than use of a cell phone and the ability to program in site wide text notification in the event of an emergency, Apartment Guardian ensures staff AS WELL AS residents are more likely to stay safe and get the help they needed in the event of an unfortunate attack, fire or dangerous incident. Apartment Guardian is currently onsite at over 3000 multifamily properties nationwide, and we are mandated by over 50 different property management companies. The question you might hear from a lawyer in a civil lawsuit from one of your injured residents is: if all those other companies employed Apartment Guardian to keep us safe, why didn’t you? That opens your liability up to a duty of care negligence claim that could be easily avoided by implementing Apartment Guardian site-wide.
Ensuring onsite safety for your employees is not just a matter of avoiding obvious dangers. It also means proactively attempting to solve the unique safety issues faced by multifamily employees, limiting your liability in the event of an onsite incident. Apartment Guardian’s fully mobile panic button is designed specifically for the needs of property managers, leasing agents and maintenance professionals. It is a low cost, no set-up solution to ensuring your employees stay safe from hard and you stay safe from costly lawsuits.
To get a quote for your property or company, fill out the form below. Or you can reach me at kate@apartmentguardian.com.
