If you have been hurt in the home you rent, a stair that gave way, a railing that came loose, a fire that started in old wiring, a fall on a walkway your landlord promised to fix, you are dealing with more than pain. You are dealing with medical bills, missed work, and a landlord who suddenly has very little to say. And underneath all of it is a question most injured tenants are afraid to ask out loud: if I make a claim, will I lose my home too?
That is exactly where I come in.
My name is Alex Murad, and I am an attorney based in Ojai serving tenants across Ventura County. I practice both landlord-tenant law and personal injury law, which matters more than you might think. When a renter gets hurt because of a dangerous condition in their home, the case sits at the intersection of those two fields. Most injury lawyers do not know tenant law. Most tenant lawyers do not handle injury claims. I do both, and I built my practice around people in exactly your position.
You did not agree to get hurt when you signed a lease. Paying rent does not mean accepting broken stairs, exposed wiring, or a landlord who ignores danger until someone bleeds. The law is on your side here, and I can help you use it.
What Premises Liability Means for Renters
Premises liability is the area of law that holds property owners responsible when their carelessness injures someone on their property. In California, a landlord must use reasonable care in owning and maintaining rental property. That duty covers the unit you live in, and it covers the parts of the property the landlord controls, like stairways, walkways, railings, laundry rooms, and parking areas.
When a landlord knows about a dangerous condition, or reasonably should know about it, and fails to fix it, and that condition hurts you, the landlord can be held responsible for the harm. That includes your medical bills, your lost income, and what the injury has done to your life.
Some landlords point to lease language that says they are not responsible if a tenant gets hurt. I want to be direct with you: California law says a residential lease cannot make you waive your right to recover damages for a landlord’s negligence. Those clauses are void. Do not let a paragraph in your lease talk you out of a real claim.
Premises liability also overlaps heavily with habitability. The same broken heater, leaking roof, or rotted floor that makes a home unlivable is often the very thing that ends up injuring someone. If you are living with conditions like that right now, my habitability page explains your rights before anyone gets hurt. This page is about what happens after.
Common Ways Tenants Get Hurt
Broken Stairs, Steps, and Railings
Loose treads, rotted wood, missing handrails, and crumbling steps cause some of the worst injuries I see. These are exactly the kinds of conditions a landlord is supposed to catch and repair, especially in stairways and common areas the landlord controls.
Slip, Trip, and Fall Hazards
Leaking pipes that leave water on floors, torn carpet, buckled walkways, poor lighting in hallways and parking areas. A fall sounds minor until it breaks a hip, a wrist, or a vertebra. It happens to careful people every day.
Fires, Faulty Wiring, and Gas Leaks
Old or improper wiring, missing smoke detectors, unpermitted work, and leaking gas lines can cause burns, smoke inhalation, and carbon monoxide poisoning. These cases are serious, and building and safety code violations often make them stronger.
Mold, Water Damage, and Unhealthy Air
Long-term exposure to mold and chronic dampness can cause real respiratory illness, especially in children and older adults. These claims take careful proof, but ignoring them because they are hard is not how I practice law.
Dog Attacks and Unsafe Conditions on the Property
Sometimes the danger is not the building itself. A landlord who knows a dog on the property is dangerous, or who leaves broken gates, unsecured pools, or falling tree limbs unaddressed, can share responsibility for the harm that follows. If a dog hurt you, my dog bite and personal injury page covers those cases in depth.
If your situation is on this list, or if it is something I have not named here, it is worth a conversation.
Your Rights After an Injury in a Home You Rent
You have the right to seek compensation. That can include every medical bill, past and future, the income you lost while you healed, and the pain, anxiety, and disruption the injury brought into your life. If the injury is permanent, the claim must account for that too.
You have the right to stay in your home. California law protects tenants from retaliation, and making an injury claim against your landlord is not grounds for eviction. Landlords sometimes try anyway. If yours does, that is a fight I know how to win, and you can read about it on my eviction defense page.
You have the right to hold the landlord to what they knew. Every repair request you sent, every text you wrote about that stair, every time the landlord walked past the problem, builds your case. Notice is often the heart of a premises liability claim, and tenants usually have more proof of it than they realize.
A word of caution. In most California injury cases you have two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit, and waiting weakens a case long before any deadline arrives. Evidence gets repaired, repainted, and hauled away. And if your landlord is a housing authority or other government entity, you may have as little as six months to file a formal claim. Please do not sit on this.
Why Having an Attorney Changes the Outcome
An attorney can preserve the evidence before it disappears. Landlords fix dangerous conditions fast once someone gets hurt. Photographs, inspections, witness statements, and preservation letters need to happen early, and I make sure they do.
An attorney can prove what the landlord knew. Because I practice tenant law every day, I know how to use repair requests, code enforcement records, prior complaints, and habitability history to show the landlord had notice and did nothing.
An attorney can deal with the insurance company so you do not have to. Most of these claims are paid by the landlord’s liability insurance, and the adjuster’s job is to pay you as little as possible. Injured tenants who negotiate alone almost always leave money on the table.
An attorney can value your claim honestly. Not just the bills sitting on your counter today, but future treatment, lost earning capacity, and what the injury has actually cost you as a person.
And if the landlord or the insurance company forces the issue in court, you will not be walking in alone.
Why Hire Me?
I am a solo practitioner, which means when you hire me, you get me. Not a paralegal. Not a junior associate. Me.
I built this practice to stand with tenants. I know how landlords and their insurers think, because I face them constantly, and I know how heavy it is to be hurt inside the one place that is supposed to be safe.
I have also volunteered with legal aid, because I believe access to justice should not depend on the size of your bank account. That belief shapes how I treat every client who walks through my door.
And I bring what I call ranch grit to every case. A work ethic and level of persistence that you will be hard-pressed to find anywhere else.
If you have been hurt, start documenting now. Get medical care and follow through with it. Photograph the condition that hurt you, and the injury itself, before anything changes. Save every repair request, text, and email. Keep the shoes and clothes you were wearing if you fell. Small steps taken today can decide a case a year from now.
From my office in Ojai, I serve tenants across Ventura County, including Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Port Hueneme, Oak View, and Meiners Oaks.
Your consultation is free, and I handle injury cases on a contingency basis, which means you pay attorney fees only if I recover for you. You can read exactly how that works on my fees and costs page.
Call or text: 805-295-4197 Email: alexmurad@ranchgritlaw.com
Disclaimer: This website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Viewing this site or communicating with the Law Office of Alex Murad through this site does not create an attorney-client relationship. Licensed to practice law in California only.