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Texas property owners must keep their premises reasonably safe, and injured people can seek compensation when they don't. The Texas Chongo Personal Injury Lawyers represent people hurt by dangerous conditions on someone else's property, from grocery store floors to apartment stairwells to industrial job sites. Texas premises liability law turns on what the owner knew, when the owner knew it, and whether a reasonable inspection would have found the hazard sooner.
Those questions decide most cases, and a property insurer has little reason to answer them in your favor. A Texas premises liability lawyer on our team can review the property, maintenance records, and timeline before the evidence disappears. Call (972) 529-3476 for a free case evaluation.
Our qualifications in this area are documented rather than described in general terms:
We take premises cases on a contingency fee basis. Our office is in Irving, and we accept property injury cases from clients across Texas.
A premises liability claim asks more of you than an ordinary negligence claim does. You have to show the owner or occupier knew about a dangerous condition or should have discovered it. Then you have to show the condition posed an unreasonable risk of harm, that the owner failed to use reasonable care to remove or warn about it, and that the failure caused your injuries.
Most disputes in these cases turn on the first element.
Texas courts draw a careful line around what an owner is treated as knowing. In CMH Homes, Inc. v. Daenen, the Texas Supreme Court addressed premises that wear out over time. An owner or occupier is not liable for deterioration of its premises unless it knew of the deterioration or would have discovered it by reasonable inspection.
Knowing that a set of steps will eventually wear out is not the same as knowing those steps are dangerous today. That general knowledge affects how often the owner should have inspected them.
Our team requests maintenance logs, inspection schedules, work orders, and prior complaints for exactly that reason.
A property owner's duty stops at the edge of what it controls. In HNMC, Inc. v. Chan, the Texas Supreme Court applied that limit to an injury on a public street beside the property. An owner has no duty to ensure the safety of a person who leaves the owner's property and is injured on an adjacent public roadway.
Control is the exception that matters. When an owner exercises actual control over part of adjoining land, premises duties can follow into that area. Because of that, we look closely at who maintained, marked, lit, and directed traffic across the ground where the injury happened.
Several Texas statutes reshape these claims well before a jury ever hears about a wet floor or a broken railing.
When a property injury stems from defective architectural design or structural construction, Texas enforces strict statutory time limits that run from the date of construction completion rather than the date of injury:
Claims against design professionals carry a second requirement. Under Section 150.002, the complaint must include an affidavit called a certificate of merit. It must come from a third-party professional who holds the same license as the defendant and practices in the same area, and failure to file it results in dismissal, possibly with prejudice.
Texas treats a whole category of property injuries differently from ordinary premises claims. Under Section 87.003, farm owners, lessees, farm animal professionals, and livestock show sponsors are generally not liable for injuries resulting from the inherent risks of farm animal activities.
Those inherent risks include an animal's unpredictable reaction to sound or sudden movement, surface and subsurface land conditions in equine activities, and collisions with another animal or an object. Section 87.005 requires a warning sign posted at the stable, corral, or arena, plus the same warning in every written contract with a participant.
The limitation is not absolute. Section 87.004 lists exceptions that can keep a claim alive:
The third exception does the most work in our cases, because a hidden hazard the owner already knew about returns the claim to ordinary premises principles.
Our personal injury attorneys manage complex property claims across Texas, including:
Evidence in a premises case often disappears within days because the hazard gets cleaned up and the video gets overwritten. Taking a few steps early protects the claim:
Our team can send a preservation letter for surveillance video, which many businesses overwrite on a short cycle.
Texas law separates the losses you can document from the harm that has no receipt. Both categories are recoverable when the evidence supports them.
Responsibility follows control rather than the deed. An owner, property manager, tenant, business, maintenance contractor, or security company can be liable for the part of the premises it controlled. Our team often identifies more than one responsible party.
Most injured people have 2 years from the date of injury under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Claims against a governmental property owner carry much shorter notice deadlines, so those cases need attention right away.
Yes, in most situations. Under Section 33.001, you may not recover if your percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. Below that line, your damages are reduced by your share of the fault.
That claim may still be available. Sections 16.008 and 16.009 allow up to 10 years from substantial completion, though residential claims can be shorter and a certificate of merit is required against design professionals. These deadlines run independently of the 2-year injury deadline, so you must check both.
Not by itself. A sign matters most in farm animal and livestock activities, where Chapter 87 requires specific wording, and statutory exceptions still apply. In an ordinary premises case, a warning is one fact about reasonable care rather than a complete defense.
We handle premises cases on a contingency fee basis, so you pay attorney fees from a recovery under the signed agreement. Your case evaluation costs nothing, and we explain the fee terms in writing before you decide.
Dangerous property conditions injure people across Texas every day, and the owners responsible for them rarely volunteer what their records show. The Texas Chongo Personal Injury Lawyers investigate the condition, the notice, and the chain of control, then present the claim to the insurer or a jury. David Sanchez, board-certified in personal injury trial law, leads that work.
Call a Texas premises liability lawyer at (972) 529-3476 for a free case evaluation, in English or Spanish. We accept premises liability cases throughout Texas on a contingency fee basis, with the fee terms set out in writing before you sign anything.
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