Delayed Treatment After a Fall at an Apartment Office

Attorney Answer

Not seeing a doctor right away does not end your claim — it makes it harder to prove. The bigger risk is the calendar, because the deadline runs from the fall, not from the day you decided it mattered.

Take the claim first. A resident going to the leasing or management office of the complex where you live is there for the complex's business as well as your own, which puts you in the invitee category in most cases. Corbin v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 648 S.W.2d 292 (Tex. 1983), states the duty the property owner or manager owes an invitee: reasonable care to protect against unreasonable risks of harm on the property that it knows about or should know about.

Keetch v. Kroger Co., 845 S.W.2d 262 (Tex. 1992), sets out what has to be proved — the owner or occupier had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition, the condition posed an unreasonable risk of harm, it failed to use reasonable care to reduce or eliminate the risk, and that failure proximately caused the injury. Keetch also holds that an occupier who created the condition may be found to have known of it, though that alone does not establish knowledge as a matter of law. So the case turns on what you slipped on and how long it had been there: a leak or a spill nobody cleaned, a mat that curled, a floor recently mopped without a warning, a threshold that had been reported. Office floors are a small area under management's own eyes, which usually helps on the knowledge element.

Now the delay. Insurers use a treatment gap in two ways: to argue you were not really hurt, and to argue that whatever is wrong now came from something else that happened in the meantime. Neither argument is unbeatable. What answers it is evidence from the time of the fall — an incident report at the office, a message to a friend or family member about it that week, a coworker or neighbor who saw you limping, a photograph. A doctor who examines you now and takes an accurate history can also connect the current findings to the fall. What you should not do is stay untreated. Your health aside, an injury with no medical record attached to it is very hard to value or prove.

What you can do

1. See a doctor now, and tell them exactly when the fall happened, where, and what has hurt since. An accurate history in the chart is the record that ties things together.

2. Ask the property management company in writing for a copy of any incident report from that date, and for confirmation of whether one was made. Management companies change, so ask sooner rather than later.

3. Look through your own phone and email for anything from that week — texts, photos, a message mentioning the fall. That contemporaneous material is often the strongest evidence a delayed claim has.

4. Write down, now, what you remember: the date, the time, what the floor looked like, who was working, whether anyone helped you, and what you said to them.

5. If you still have access to the property, photograph the spot and the surrounding area.

6. Do not give the complex's insurer a recorded statement or sign anything they send before you have talked with a lawyer. On a delayed claim, an early statement is what the defense builds on.

7. Ask a Texas attorney to check the filing deadline against your actual date of the fall before you do anything else.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts with a Texas attorney is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires a personal-injury suit to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. That clock started with the fall, not with the day you realized it was serious, and when it ends depends on facts specific to your case. Do not count it yourself — have a Texas attorney confirm the date, and treat it as the first thing you ask about, not the last.