Your Home May be Your Castle But Landlords Have Limited Liability, If Any, in Pennsylvania For Criminal Acts of Third Parties

A very brave and courageous woman called our office the other day because her landlord was suing her for the damage to the house she was renting which happened to have been caused by two burglars who tried to break into her house, shot the woman ten times through a poorly secured door in a known dangerous neighbor in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

The woman sustained serious and permanent injuries but she says she was lucky because her quick thinking probably kept her two kids from getting shot and possibly killed too.  When burglars tried to kick in her back door, the woman acted quickly, even after being shot, to get on the ground and put her feet up against the poorly secured door to prevent the burglars from further entry.  She was shot repeatedly again but when her boyfried arrived, the burglars left.  Several weeks later, the burglars were at it again at a motel in West Chester when they were confronted by police and one of them was killed in a gun battle.  The other burglar remains in custody.

With over $200,000 in unpaid medical bills, lost wages and her landlord suing her, the woman was referred to us by a local Crime Victims' Advocate organization to see what other rights she might have.  We are helping her with the landlord tenant issues, but unfortunately we had to advise her that no cause of action existed against the landlord for failing to provide a safe rental property.

In 1984 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Feld v. Merriam  denied a claim where a resident was assault in her apartment's parking garage.  The Court held that a residential landlord cannot be civilly liable for a crime attack which occurred in a private area not open to the public.  Absent an agreement to provide security or undertaking to provide security and then negligently performing that, the Court found no liability on the part of the apartment owner.

The exceptions in these cases need to be considered.  But for this woman, no such exception existed.