and if your dog(s) bite anyone or even just knock them over - while in transit between your front gate and your front door - YOU could be sued!
Yes, you are even responsible for a licensed tradesperson. Its worth familiarising yourself with what your responsibilities are.
And example:
A HOME owner has been ordered to pay $70,000 in compensation to the widow of an electrician who died after working in his roof.
The decision, handed down in the District Court would surprise many property owners ignorant of their responsibilities, a legal expert has told the Herald.
Allan Harley had been working on a terrace in Darlington in October 2004 when he was electrocuted after coming into contact with an exposed live wire from a previously used solar hot water heater.
His wife, Fiona Giovenco, sued the owner of the home, Geoffrey John Dick, and a plumber, Paul Thomas Stephens, who had been employed by Mr Dick in 2001 to decommission the old system and replace it with a gas water heater.
Last week Judge Leonard Levy determined the level of liability for each man after the parties agreed Ms Giovenco be awarded $350,000 in damages.
Judge Levy found Mr Dick liable for 20 per cent of the damages because he ''was aware and ought to have been aware'' that a live supply of electricity remained connected to the old hot water system.
Professor Peter Cane from the Australian National University said the judgment had followed the general legal principle that property owners bear certain responsibilities for people's safety while on their premises. However he said many people would have ''no idea that they would be responsible in those circumstances''.
Judge Levy found Mr Stephens liable for 80 per cent of the damages. It had been ''reasonably foreseeable'' to both men that the electrocution could have occurred and therefore each had breached their duty of care to Mr Harley, Judge Levy found
