Learn About Accidents At Home Injury Claims

In this guide, we discuss accidents at home injury claims and how to establish if your potential case is valid.

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A Guide To Accidents At Home Injury Claims

By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 14th March 2024. Did you know that more accidents happen at home than anywhere else? This is according to statistics provided by the ROSPA, otherwise known as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

In fact, there are 2.7 million people that require medical attention per annum due to home accidents. Of course, you may assume that you are not entitled to personal injury compensation for an accident that has happened at your property because you are to blame.

Person at home resting injured foot in a cast

However, it is not always this black and white. There are plenty of cases whereby people have been injured in their own homes due to negligence or because of the carelessness of someone else. If this applies to you, you will be able to make a personal injury claim, and we can help you to get the injury compensation that you deserve.

Here at Legal Expert, we have many of years of experience in the industry and we have helped many people to launch successful cases for accidents that have happened at their own homes.

You can reach us on 0800 073 8804 to start the process of making your claim. It’s also possible to see if you have a valid claim online by filling out our web form. Additionally, the pop-up window in the corner will allow you to chat with our advisors in real-time.

Select A Section

    1. What Is An Accident At Home?
    2. Time Limits For Accidents At Home Injury Claims
    3. My Landlord Is To Blame For My Accident At Home – Could I Still Claim?
    4. How To Make A Personal Injury Claim For Accidents In The Home
    5. What Could My Accident At Home Claim Include?
    6. Compensation Payouts For Accidents At Home Injury Claims
    7. No Win No Fee Accident At Home Claims
    8. Helpful Resources On Home Accidents

What Is An Accident At Home? 

If you live in a rented property, either rented through a private landlord or housing association, then if you suffer an injury in that property caused by the fault of the landlord, you may be eligible to make a personal injury claim. You could also claim against a third party if they supplied and fitted home appliances or products in the home that are faulty.

Examples of accidents at home that could cause injuries include:

  • Falling objects from the outside of the house due to disrepair. For example, the guttering could come loose and cause a head injury if it is not properly maintained. This could also occur due to a faulty repair.
  • Burns and scalds could occur if the boiler is faulty. For example, a faulty thermostat could result in water being too hot.
  • An electric shock accident could occur if proper electricity maintenance checks are not carried out.
  • Gas leaks could cause sickness. Landlords must complete yearly gas checks.

Contact our advisors with any questions you may have about the claiming process while reading this guide. The advice they give is free. Additionally, they may connect you with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors if you have an eligible claim.

Time Limits For Accidents At Home Injury Claims

If you are making a personal injury claim, you must ensure it is started within the time limit. The time limit for personal injury claims is usually three years from the date of the accident. This is according to the Limitations Act 1980.

The act allows for exceptions and allowances to this limitation period.

If you only became aware of your injuries at a later date, this would become your date of knowledge, and you could be able to use your date of knowledge as the start of your three years to claim.

People aged under 18 cannot start a claim for themselves. A claim can still be made on their behalf by an appointed litigation friend, but their claims will not face a time limit while they cannot claim for themselves. When they turn 18, they will have three years to start a claim.

A similar exception is made for people who lack the mental capacity to start a claim – they face no time limits and can be represented by a litigation friend at any point.

Please reach out to one of our advisers for more information about claims for accidents at home.

My Landlord Is To Blame For My Accident At Home – Could I Still Claim?

We can assist you with claiming against your landlord. All landlords have a legal responsibility to ensure that the house they provide their tenants with is safe. If the accident could have been prevented, you will be entitled to compensation.

Common examples of incidents whereby landlords are to blame is if they have cut corners with regards to any jobs around the house, failed to carry out the correct maintenance, failed to act quickly, and failed to carry out regular checks. All of this is and more listed in the Landlord and Tennant Act 1985.

How To Make A Personal Injury Claim For Accidents In The Home

As we discussed above, accidents in the home could occur in many different ways. However, no matter how your injuries happened, if you decide to make a personal injury claim, you will need evidence.

This must show that a liable party owed you a duty of care. In addition, you need to demonstrate that your injuries were caused when the liable party failed to adhere to this duty.

Examples that could be useful in injuries at home claims:

  • Medical records. This will show what your injuries are and the prognosis. In addition, they will show what date you sought treatment.
  • You may have home CCTV, a nanny cam, or someone may have caught the accident on a mobile phone. Any of this could be submitted if you can access it.
  • If you took photographs of the hazard that caused the accident in which you were injured.
  • Product package. For example, if your accident was caused by a faulty product, you could save the packaging.
  • Records of repair requests. If your landlord failed in their legal responsibility to carry out repairs in a timely manner, you could submit your repair requests if you made them by email, letter or text message.

If you need any help with gathering evidence or need further information about how to make a personal injury claim, call our advisors. They can discuss the specifics of your potential claim.

Injured man lying on back after an accident at home

What Could My Accident At Home Claim Include?

When making a claim, compensation is often comprised of a number of payments.

General Damages

Let’s begin with general damages. These are for the injuries you have suffered. The amount you receive will be calculated based on how serious your injuries are and the impact they are having on your everyday life. Needless to say, the more serious your injuries are the more compensation you are likely to be awarded.

Special Damages

Special damages are designed to compensate you for any out of pocket expenses you have suffered because of your injuries. Here are some common examples:

      • Medical bills
      • Cost of counselling
      • Loss of earnings
      • Travel costs
      • Childcare expenses
      • Repair costs

Ask yourself the following, “will I have experienced this cost if I hadn’t been injured?” If the answer is no, then it could count as special damages. Nevertheless, you will need to keep proof of these costs, so make sure you do not throw away your receipts and other forms of viable evidence.

Compensation Payouts For Accidents At Home Injury Claims

It’s natural to be curious as to how much compensation you could receive in a successful claim. Unfortunately, giving a precise figure that will be accurate for everyone is not an easy task. Even an online compensation calculator is unlikely to take into account the various intricacies that your claim presents.

What we can do for you is provide some relevant figures from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This is a publication that’s used by legal professionals to help calculate what the general damages portion of your compensation payment could be worth. This is the sum that’s awarded to you so that the pain and suffering caused by your injuries are acknowledged.

In the table below, we’ve included some figures from the latest edition of the JCG. The last update took place in 2019. Don’t worry if your injury does not appear in the table. This is just a small sample of the injuries and associated figures that are listed in the JCG, Please also note that the first entry is not based on the JCG.

InjuryDescriptionAmount
Multiple Serious Injuries Plus Special DamagesIf you've sustained multiple serious injuries in an accident at home that you can claim for, then your payout may cover all of these as well as any related special damages, such as loss of earnings.Up to £200,000+
Facial Scarring(a) Very severe - where the injured person is relatively young and facial scarring is very disfiguring with a severe psychological reaction£29,780 to £97,330
Leg Injury(b) Severe - (ii) the injured party will need walking or mobility aids for the rest of their life, due to extensive fractures that have taken years to heal £54,830 to £87,890
Back Injury(a) Severe - (iii) Issues such as soft tissue damage or disc lesions/fractures that lead to ongoing pain and disability, despite treatments such as surgery£38,780 to £69,730
Hand Injury(e) Serious - 50% reduction in hand capacity, sometimes where amputated fingers have been rejoined but without complete function£29,000 to £61,910
Arm Injury(b) serious forearm fractures that lead to permanent functional or cosmetic disability£39,170 to £59,860
Arm Injury(d) Simple forearm fractures£6,610 to £19,200
Injury To Fingers(f) Severe - possible amputations and impaired grip, function etc.Up to £36,740
Ankle Injury(d) Modest - sprains, ligament injuries, undisplaced fractures etc.Up to £13,740
Thumb Injury(u) Moderate - things like tendon/nerve injuries that impair sensation and function£9,670 to £12,590

No Win No Fee Accident At Home Claims

Our advisors could potentially connect you with one of our No Win No Fee solicitors if you have valid grounds to claim for an accident at home.

Our solicitors can support home accident claims under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This means you won’t need to pay your solicitor for their work before your claim has begun or while it’s being processed under this type of No Win No Fee arrangement. You also won’t need to pay your solicitor for their services if the claim fails.

If your personal injury claim succeeds, then your solicitor will take a success fee. This means that your solicitor will take a small and legally capped percentage of the compensation awarded for your claim.

To learn more about working with a No Win No Fee solicitor, contact our advisors for free today. They can also answer any questions you may have about other parts of the claiming process. To reach our team, you can:

Helpful Resources On Home Accidents

Hopefully, you have found this guide on home accidents useful in your quest to get further information about making a claim for an accident that has happened at home. However, if you need further advice, the links below may be of some use.

We’ve also included some other guides related to home accidents that you may find useful:

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    • Patrick Mallon legal expert author

      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.

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