Can I Sue My Apartment Complex?

Q.  I am leasing an apartment that has represented its property to be highly secure.  They have surveillance cameras and an on-site security officer.  My car was broken into while in the secured and fenced parking lot.  I am now facing about $1,000 in losses due to electronics that were stolen as well as a broken window.  It turns out that the surveillance system was not on and there was no video of the vandalism and theft.  Can I sue the apartment complex?

 

A.  Your question is a good one, but more often involves a tragic personal injury case.  Consider your same question, and this time the criminal broke into the apartment complex and injured or raped a tenant.  The legal issues are largely the same. The criminal act would often be considered an “unforeseeable intervening cause”.  That is, sometimes the law closes its eyes and says that it is unforeseeable that a criminal act could occur.  Of course, those of us living in the real world know otherwise. 

 

The representations in the lease, promotional material and statements by the apartment complex’s agents would be very important to examine.  Those representations may overcome the principal of law discussed above.  They may also create a cause of action for some sort of breach of contract, depending on how specific the language was. Parking lot cases are also considered under a few other legal concepts, namely license and bailee/bailor.  When you turn over your keys to a valet attendant for instance a bailee/bailor relationship is established.  There, generally speaking, the parking lot attendant has the responsibility to return the vehicle to you in the same condition which you gave it to him, and is responsible for intervening criminal acts.  The same is not the case when you keep the keys and simply park the car yourself in a parking lot.  There, intervening criminal acts would most often prevent a recovery, unless, as I stated above, there are some representations orally or in writing which you would have a right to rely upon.

 

Realistically, in the case which you describe, it is unlikely that the thousand dollars worth of property damage would be enough to bring suit over.  The filing fees alone would create a barrier to moving forward.  However, in those cases where there are serious injury or death, the issue of inadequate security is often fought over. 

 

Tom Paris, Chicago Attorney 
312/759-1600
312/201-1436(fax)

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