Survey: Slip and Fall Liability in Multifamily

_{By Whitney Fraser.  Whitney is the Vice President of Multifamily & Real Estate Sales at Cloudastructure, where she leads enterprise sales efforts. Through strategic account leadership and strong customer relationships. With experience spanning software sales at RealPage and operations in property management, Whitney brings a unique blend of operational insight and technical acumen to her role. She’s an occasional contributor on multifamilyinsiders.com as well.}

_{Whitney was recognized as a winner for Female Executive of the Year at the Stevie Awards™ for Women in Business in 2022—an honor validating her leadership and impact on Cloudastructure’s growth trajectory.}

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What Is Multifamily Slip and Fall Liability?

Slip and fall liability remains a leading concern for property managers, exposing them to costly legal claims and increased insurance premiums. Despite advanced video surveillance and remote-guarding solutions, the risks persist across apartments, student housing, and commercial rental sites. Incidents—from wet floors to icy sidewalks—regularly trigger litigation, requiring robust risk management and incident documentation.​

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Key Poll Insights: Apartment Security and Crime Prevention

According to the Multifamily Crime Poll conducted with 32 property managers during the Cloudastructure webinar “From Sidewalks to Settlements: Slip and Fall Liability,” 65% of respondents encountered at least one slip and fall incident within the previous year. 

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Overwhelmingly, the most cited barrier to prevention was noncompliance by residents and guests who ignore posted warnings or bypass maintenance requests. Only 36% blamed property management challenges such as turnover, budget or condition of the property.

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Legal Risk Management: Insurance and Court Defense

While most property managers experience slip and fall cases on a regular basis, less than 30% were fully confident in their property’s case management and security tools to successfully defend their property in court against a false liability case. The poll reveals significant gaps in confidence of how documentation, staff training, and surveillance evidence is collected and handled at multi-family properties. Failure to routinely follow documentation protocols immediately, including footage of before and after an incident as well as the incident itself and capture witness statements - and do so every time exposes apartments, condo complexes, and rental operators to potential losses in court.​

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Property managers can act by:

• Auditing vulnerabilities and hazards frequently to document risk reduction efforts.​
• Implementing cloud-based video surveillance and remote guarding to gather unbiased evidence of every slip and fall incident within their purview and support insurance reviews.​
• Educating residents about site safety, compliance, and responsibilities under lease agreements.​
• Keeping disciplined records of repairs, warnings, and training for incident case management.​

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Advanced Apartment Security: Technology and Best Practices

Integrating surveillance systems, AI security cameras, and automated incident tracking boosts defense against liability claims and enables real-time monitoring of trouble spots. These approaches are increasingly vital for multifamily, student housing, and commercial sites, where crime prevention directly impacts resident safety and legal outcomes.​

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Key Takeaways for Multifamily Operators

• Slip and fall incidents are consistently frequent in multifamily properties, requiring active prevention.​
• The top challenges are environmental hazards, budget limits, and resident noncompliance.​
• Most managers lack confidence in defending liability claims, but cloud video surveillance with remote guarding can bridge a significant gap in incident reporting in terms of both consistency and comprehensiveness. ​
• Resident education and proactive hazard audits drive better outcomes in insurance and court scenarios.​
• Multifamily crime poll findings highlight urgent needs for more resources and advanced security technology to protect their brand reputation. 

With not only the volume of slip and fall cases on the rise but the size of the settlements escalating, is it time you took a look with AI Surveillance and Remote Guarding?

Let’s talk. Contact Us Today

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See all Multifamily Crime Polls

Source: Insights from the Multifamily Crime Poll (September 2025), conducted during Cloudastructure’s webinar “From Sidewalks to Settlements: Slip and Fall Liability” with attorney Melinda McBeth and insurance VP Megan Davidson.​

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