Residential Garage Door Claims

I’ve worked on over 100 residential garage doors injury cases in the past 15-years. Both the defense and plaintiff retain me as a door expert. I offer a neutral and unbiased evaluation of each claim. Come and visit our website search it on Rainbow Garage Door Service Seattle you can learn more.

It is from these common circumstances that the following article has been derived. In an effort to give others some valuable information, I have written this article after reviewing some of the recent settled cases. This short article is unable to address every possible variation, nuance or combination of circumstances relating to garage door injuries. This article is based on multiple similar cases. The same injuries are described to me by lawyers repeatedly. I am often contacted by attorneys with similar claims. You may find that if I am an attorney and you consider taking a case involving garage doors, my previous experiences are likely to be similar or even identical.

Injury caused by Garage Doors in Rental Properties:

Residential garage doors can cause amputations to fingers and toes. My experience as a retained door specialist has shown that many of the cases involving these door-related amputations happen in rental properties.

Who is responsible? How can there be so many complaints about rental properties?

The landlord did not inspect the general condition of rental property either before or during the lease.
The garage door is in a bad condition. The owner does not care. Due to the fact that the property purchased was to be demolished for future developments, there are delays with the construction. As a result, it was rented by a tenant who was only staying in place for a few months.
The old relatives who used to live there inherited the property. The property was inherited by elderly relatives who had lived there previously.
The garage door needed to be replaced, but neither the landlord nor the tenant wanted to invest the time or money to do so, since the tenant did not use the garage for parking cars.
There are no safety devices that comply with the current standards installed on this door. Also, there is no appropriate hardware to open or close it such as a door handle.
Maintenance is not performed properly or delayed due to costs.
The Section 8 Tenancy or the Low-Rent Tenancy.
Renters have damaged the garage opener and/or door by using it inappropriately.
There is no parental supervision over the children of tenants.
Renter has not paid electric bill, and automatic door opener does not work.
A property owner hires a management firm to take care of oversight and maintenance. However, due to the cost involved, they do not provide adequate maintenance.
The management company performs unqualified and inexperienced repairs.

To operate properly, garage doors must be well balanced.

The improper balance of a garage door has led to many finger and toe amputations. This is often due to a limited amount of interaction with an infrequently used sectional door or single-panel garage. Many cases I’ve been involved in involve a tenant who had lived at the house for some years but only ever used the sectional or single panel door twice.

Some tenants have reported that when they tried to walk out of the door, the door would violently crash down onto their heads and necks. In some cases, it has landed directly on the feet of the tenant, breaking bones. As a result of broken, improperly tensioned or unconnected springs, fingers and hands were crushed.