5 Warning Signs That You Need to Boost Site Security (from Tax Credit Housing Management Insider)

Five Warning Signs
That You Need to
Boost Site Security

From Tax Credit Housing Management Insider
A monthly subscription that helps you avoid compliance
mistakes that could jeopardize some—or even all—of your
site’s tax credits.

Vendome Real Estate Media |
www.taxcredithousinginsider.com

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Five Warning Signs That You Need to Boost Site Security
Every manager’s worst nightmare is a violent crime against a
resident at his tax credit site.
And compounding the tragedy of the crime is the risk of liability. You
could be held liable for the crime if you knew your residents were at
risk of that type of crime.
In legal terms, the crime would be “foreseeable” and you'd failed to
take reasonable steps to prevent it from happening for you to be
liable, says security and liability consultant Jon Groussman.


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When is a crime foreseeable?
Courts look to see if there were signs that should have tipped you
off that the crime might occur. For example, if a resident is
assaulted in her unit, you now know that an assault is possible—
that is, foreseeable—and you’ll need to take reasonable steps to
prevent it from happening again.
But what if no assaults have occurred at your site?
Do you still need to take precautions to prevent one? You might if
there are other signs that make such a crime foreseeable.


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To help you determine whether you need to increase security, we’ll
tell you about five signs that signal you’re at risk of a violent crime
occurring at your site.
If any of these circumstances apply to you, don’t ignore them.
Make sure your security devices are in good repair and talk to your
attorney and insurance carrier about other security measures you
should take, such as guards or improved lighting or landscaping.
And once you’ve taken these steps, don’t let up. If you allow your
security measures to lapse, you could be held liable if a crime
occurs.


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#1: Violent Crime Has Occurred Against Resident in Building.
The clearest sign that a crime is foreseeable is that such a crime has already
occurred. You’ll need to take steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. If
you don’t, and another violent crime is committed against a resident, a
court is likely to find you liable for it.
In one case, a Texas minor was sexually assaulted at a building. The minor’s
mother sued the owners, claiming that the attack was foreseeable. The
mother offered police records of eight violent personal crimes that
occurred at the building in the three years before the sexual assault. The
mother also showed that the owners and manager of the building had
actual knowledge of many of these crimes and that security services for the
building had been terminated and not replaced.

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#2: Violent Crime Has Occurred in Common Area.
If a violent crime has occurred in your building’s common area, this may
also make a violent crime in a unit foreseeable. The crime puts you on
notice that your site is a target and that the next intruder might get all
the way into a unit.
In one case, a Florida resident was robbed and sexually assaulted in her
unit. She sued the owner, claiming that the crime was foreseeable
because two violent attacks had occurred previously in the building’s
parking lot. The owner claimed that a violent attack in a unit wasn’t
foreseeable because the previous attacks had taken place in a common
area and not in a unit.


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#2: Violent Crime Has Occurred in Common Area. (continued)
The court said the previous attacks were enough to put the owner on notice
that his residents were at risk in their units, even though they had occurred in
a common area. The presence of violent criminals at the site made it
foreseeable that they might get into a unit [Czerwinski v. Sunrise Point
Condominium, March 1989].
It’s important to make sure your site’s common area security devices and the
security measures you’ve taken are maintained and in good repair. In one
case, a widowed resident sued the owner for the wrongful death of her
spouse in a unit rented from the owner, caused by an intruder breaking into
the unit. There was evidence that outdoor lighting of a common area behind
the deceased tenant’s unit didn’t function when the tenant was killed and
hadn’t functioned for some time.


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#2: Violent Crime Has Occurred in Common Area. (continued)
The Maryland court of appeals ruled that the owner could be liable for a
foreseeable injury caused by a known dangerous or defective condition
located within the part of the property over which the owner retained
control. The owner had a legal duty to take reasonable security measures
within the common areas when the owner knew or should have known of
criminal activity having taken place on the premises.

The owner had a continuing obligation to properly carry out its security
measures, including maintaining and regularly inspecting devices
implemented to deter criminal activity. The owner had a duty to adequately
maintain the exterior lighting it provided to deter criminal activity, and its
duty was not fulfilled by providing a working lock on the patio door through
which the intruder entered [Hemmings v. Pelham Wood Limited Liability
Partnership, June 2003].

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#3: Violent Crime Has Occurred in Other Buildings at Your Site.
If you have more than one building at your site, a crime in any one of them
puts you on notice that the other buildings are also susceptible.
A New York City resident was attacked in the stairway of her building, dragged
up to the roof, and raped. She sued the owner, claiming that it had failed to
take proper precautions against the foreseeable attack. The owner claimed
that the attack wasn’t foreseeable because there had been no prior rapes in
the building.
The court allowed the lawsuit to continue, saying the crime might have been
foreseeable. There had been numerous rapes in other buildings at the
site, and the presence of drug activity in the victim’s building put the owner
on notice that it might be vulnerable to more serious crimes there [Jacqueline
S. v. City of New York, May 1993].

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#4: Gang or Drug Activity.
Even if there have never been burglaries or physical assaults at your
site, the presence of gangs or drug dealers may put you on notice that
you’re at risk for crimes against your residents.
For example, a resident who was injured in a gang-related shooting
sued the owner for premises liability, alleging that the owner breached
his duty to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the site’s
residents. The trial court found that the resident failed to present
evidence sufficient to establish that the owner had a duty to take
additional security measures or that the owner’s alleged inaction had
proximately caused the injuries.


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#4: Gang or Drug Activity. (continued)
The appeals court disagreed, finding that where indicators of a
reasonably foreseeable risk of a violent gang assault existed, an owner
had a duty to undertake precautions to protect residents from criminal
activity attributable to a gang presence. Further, there were sufficient
facts to establish that the gang shooting at issue was reasonably
foreseeable. The owner knew that gang members were congregating in
the area and that they had been congregating in the space from which
the bullet that injured the resident was shot. The owner was also aware
that gang-related crimes and other activity had occurred on and near
the premises. That evidence included testimony from an expert on
gangs and security that but for the lack of security and lighting, the
shooting would not have occurred [Castaneda v. Olsher, September
2005].


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#5: Crime in Neighborhood.
You may also need to take action based on criminal activity in your
neighborhood. Even if you’ve never had a break-in or an attack at your
site, a court might rule that crime at your site was foreseeable if there
had been crime in your neighborhood.
Usually, general criminal activity won’t, by itself, make crime at your site
foreseeable. The neighborhood crime rate needs to be so bad that it
makes a crime at your site more likely than not. There also needs to be
evidence of criminal activity within the specific area at issue, either on
the owner’s property or closely nearby.


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5. Crime in Neighborhood. (continued)
In one premises liability case, residents sued the owners for a carjacking
incident that took place at the site. But the owners successfully showed
that a lack of crime in the neighborhood didn’t make the possibility of
violent crime at the complex foreseeable. In two years before the
carjacking, there was no violent crime at the site, save one domestic
assault between relatives. And there was no evidence of any specific
crimes of any nature in the immediate surroundings. In fact, the
evidence showed that the census tract in which the site was located
actually had a lower rate of violent personal crime than the city as a
whole. The court concluded that the carjacking was unforeseeable to
the owner and the manager; thus, they owed no duty, as a matter of
law, to provide additional security to prevent the crime [Texas Real
Estate Holdings, Inc. v. Quach, October 2002].


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5 Warning Signs That You Need to Boost Site Security (from Tax Credit Housing Management Insider)

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5 Warning Signs That You Need to Boost Site Security (from Tax Credit Housing Management Insider)