the occupiers liability act which was extended to include tresspasers, means that if it is forseeable that someone will come onto your property, then you have to take REASONABLE (legal minefield- spent the best part of 2 hours in a lecture arguing about this) steps to ensure their safety while on your property! Basically in the case of a window cleaner as long as the home owner has taken reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the window cleaner then the blame should lie on the cleaner himself, for instance if the cleaner falls of the ladder due to carelessness it is the cleaners fault, but if the ladder slips due to an icy footpath or unlevel ground, it could be argued that it was the home owners fault, as they should have taken precautions to ensure ground was level or salt was used on paths. Still cases are very often not clear cut and the the words FORSEEABLE and REASONABLE mean that the lines can be blurred beyond recognition. Personally i think that its a load of dung, and that if most home owners even new of these laws they wouldnt have a trades man around the place, especially not on a ladder! that would leave the country in some state...
I think the trouble with all these posts regarding health and safety and who is liable bla bla is that 90% of people on here have no idea what they are talking about and are all giving their opinions with no substance behind them. That is the trouble with the forum, people will read their comments and believe what is being said
Re: your comment highlighted in red, how on earth would a domestic customer get prosecuted under criminal law or sued under civil law because the ground was icy as they hadn't gritted it etc for the window cleaner, the window cleaner who is meant to be the competent person like so many claim to be on here would not have used the ladder in the first place.
The point I am making is lets be realistic when discussing these topics and not condem those individuals who actually have an idea on what the law states
Q) How many people on here have completed a NEBOSH course?
This to me is a worthy qualification and is very indepth regarding health and safety, IOSH courses aren't worth the paper they are written on when it comes to the ins and outs of H&S
I presume from your post that you have taken a NEBOSH course and that you know exactly what your talking about and if this was the case then you would then know that what I have said are not my opinions and that the Occupiers Liability Act is actually law. I have studied Occupiers Liabilty and case precedents which come with it so I would like to think that I have some knowledge of its workings. The person who started the thread asked whether somebody would be liable if a cleaner fell on their property, I have limited knowledge of WFP issues compared to most of the people on here and for this reason I normally just take advice from the forum, so I was glad that I could actually contribute for once as this is actually something I know a bit about.
Its funny you talk about 90% of people on here don’t know what there talking about when you clearly made that statistic up, it sounds like you don’t know what your talking about.
You actually haven’t highlighted any comment in red or else I cant see it due to web browser issues, either way nowhere have I said in the above post that “a domestic customer get prosecuted under criminal law or sued under civil law because the ground was icy as they hadn't gritted it etc for the window cleaner” please read the posts before making rash and stupid replies. I was telling the person who started the thread that there are some cases whereby the customer may be liable as it all depends on issues of forseeability and also taking reasonable action.
You talk about being realistic, I am being completely realistic to what can potentially happen, I don’t agree with most of it but it is real. Nowhere did I ‘condem’ anyone about what the law states, what do you mean by this?
The main issue I have with your post is that you have completely misunderstood me as I think that most of these laws are a load of sh!t and its left the country in such a state where people are afraid to do anything but I do not agree with the laws and certainly think that a window cleaner should be competent enough to know when they are taking a risk, but quite often that not the way the law or a judge may see it…
(Always thought id never get into an argument on CIU like some of the rif raf on here)
