If you’ve ever had a legal liability case brought against your business, you know how stressful it can be. Rapid Solutions often shares case studies to help business owners understand and hopefully reduce the risk of something similar happening to them.
In the below case, a timber pest inspection business had a bodily injury claim brought against them after working on stairs that had termite damage. It shows just how unforeseen these incidents can be and how important it is to have general liability insurance when you’re running a business, especially in the property management, building inspection or pest management industry.
The claim
The timber pest technician was treating a rental property for active termites, and the treatment involved applying a bait station to the top of a set of stairs.
Because of the termite damage, the stairs were in a poor state of repair.
The two-story property was occupied by a couple of tenants who were warned by the technician to take care on the stairs as they were damaged and a bait station was installed. The technician had applied electrical tape to the bait station as well as the length of the stair as it was splintered and broken.
On completion of the termite treatment several weeks later, the technician removed the bait station, reapplied the electrical tape and called the real estate agent to advise that their work was complete and the stair could now be repaired.
Several days later, and before the stair was repaired, a tenant slipped on the top stair and fell.
The next day, the tenant lodged a claim against the technician for failing in their duty of care to protect the tenants from foreseeable harm. They alleged the slip and fall caused a serious back injury.
The defence
The business owner defender their technician by stating that he’d advised the tenants and the real estate of the safety risks with the stairs during his treatment. He’d also promptly advised the real estate that the work was completed and that the stairs needed to be repaired. However, none of this was in writing. The injured person’s lawyers pursued the matter, including formally suing the technician via a Statement of Claim.
The tenant also sued the real estate agent and property owners for their failures to prevent them from foreseeable harm.
The tenant, a woman in her 30s, quantified the claim at more than half a million dollars. This was for the medical treatment she required due to the injury, future treatment, future domestic assistance and future economic loss resulting from her reduced earning capacity.
The claim was ultimately settled at a mediation for substantially less than the demand. The real estate and property owner contributed the majority of the settlement and Rapid Solution contributed a very modest amount so the settlement could be reached without going to a hearing.
The total cost of this claim to Rapid Solutions, including legal expenses to defend the timber pest inspection business, was more than $60,000.
Important lessons
While the technician didn’t do anything inherently wrong, there are some important lessons for business owners and technicians here. Doing the below can help to make it less likely that something similar happens to your business, or in the very least assist your legal defence:
1. The technician should have completed a written risk assessment, including suggested risk mitigation measures – for instance that the tenant relocates for the duration of the work. He should have given the to the agent and tenant before starting to work.
2. The technician could have refused to continue working at the property until the issue of safety risks to the tenant was reduced as suggested.
3. The technician could have made diary notes of the warnings to the tenants and the phone call to the real estate agent confirming the work was completed.;
4. The technician could have emailed the real estate agent to confirm that not only had work been completed, but that the state of the stairs was so hazardous that they should be inspected.
The importance of communication
All this shows how important it is to do thorough, documented communication during a job. If you identify any potential hazards as a result of your work, make sure to document them and communicate them to everyone involved. Back up written documentation with photographs, too. Visual evidence is one of the best ways to back up your written documentation, Read more on effective record keeping- here.
Also give regular updates on the progress of your work to all key stakeholder – not just verbally but in writing. This may seem like extra or unnecessary work, but it can make a huge difference in a legal liability case. Adapting these best practices will not only safeguard your business but improve the overall experience for your customer.
On that note, this piece on client expectation management gives more great advise on preventing conflict and saving money in the long run.
Another important aspect is proper training for all your technicians. Whether you work in the pest control office or are a manager, Rapid’s Service and Scheduling Basics Courses can help you develop or improve skills in effective and efficient communication and scheduling, Follow this link to enrol or learn more.
Insurance for your business
Accidents like the above can happen on site and expose your business legally and financially. This is why it’s so important to protect yourself with general liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance. It can give you financial protection against legal claims, damages and more.
You’ll also have access to support from our experts who are leaders in pest control and our claims team are skilled and ready to support you in times of customer complaints.
Call us on 1300 309 169 or contact us online to start your quote.