Shops, landlords, employers and dog owners: a claim has been made against you

Who this guide is for

A customer fell in your shop. A tenant or a visitor was hurt at a property you let. An employee was injured at work. Your dog bit someone on the road. You have had a letter, or a phone call, or the person has said they intend to claim. The site's other guides are written for the injured person; this one, like the rest of this chapter, is written for you.

The first point is the one that steadies most people: in each of these cases, an insurer usually deals with the claim and pays what is assessed or awarded. The second is that the Injuries Resolution Board, where the claim will go first, decides nothing about whether you were responsible. The Formal Notice guide explains the Board's letter and the 90 days; this guide covers what the law asks of each kind of respondent and what to do in the meantime. The Board's responding to a claim page and its FAQs for respondents are the Board's own account, and the Board page explains the body and its names.

Shops, pubs, gyms and other premises: the Occupiers' Liability Act 1995

The Occupiers' Liability Act 1995 sets out the duty an occupier of premises owes to people who come onto them. An occupier is whoever has control of the premises, which can be the owner, the tenant or the business running it. The Act divides entrants into three.

The common duty of care is a duty of reasonable care, not a guarantee of safety. A fall on a floor does not by itself show that the duty was not met; it is what was done about the floor, and when, that the claim turns on. That is why the records matter so much: cleaning and inspection logs, the sign that was out, the time the spill was reported, the lighting, the state of the step. The Act also allows an occupier to modify the duty by a notice or an agreement in some cases, within limits the Act sets, and to take into account the entrant's own care for their safety.

The person who fell will read the shop fall guide, which tells them to ask for the accident book entry and the CCTV at once. Expect that request.

Landlords

A landlord who has let a property is an occupier of the parts the landlord controls, such as common stairs, halls and the exterior, and owes the common duty of care in respect of them. The tenant is usually the occupier of the let premises themselves. Which of you was in control of the place where the injury happened is often the first question, and the lease and the facts answer it. A landlord's property insurance commonly includes public liability cover; the policy wording says whether it does and what it requires of you.

Employers: the 2005 Act

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 places a duty on every employer, under section 8, to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the safety, health and welfare at work of employees: the place of work, the systems of work, the equipment, the training and the supervision. Section 20 requires a written safety statement based on a risk assessment. Section 13 places duties on employees too, to take reasonable care for their own safety and to use what is provided. Section 27 makes it unlawful to penalise an employee for making a complaint or a claim about safety, and that includes dismissal, demotion and any other detriment.

An accident that keeps an employee off work for more than three days must be reported to the Health and Safety Authority (the HSA, see the glossary) under the 2016 General Application Regulations; the HSA's reporting page explains how. The report is a legal duty of its own, separate from any claim, and the HSA can inspect.

Your employer's liability insurance answers a claim by an employee; the employer does not pay from the business. The Board's July to December 2025 report records the median employer liability award up 27% year on year, the Board's figure on the figures register. The employee's side of the same case is in the accident at work guide.

Dog owners: section 21 of the Control of Dogs Act 1986

Section 21 of the Control of Dogs Act 1986 makes the owner of a dog liable in damages for damage caused in an attack on a person by the dog, and for injury done by it to livestock. The injured person does not have to show that the owner knew the dog was dangerous or was careless in controlling it. That is what strict liability means here, and it is why a dog owner's position differs from a shop's or an employer's: the question is usually not whether there was a duty and whether it was met, but what happened and what the injury is. The Act does leave room for the injured person's own conduct to be taken into account, and the Act's other sections, on leads, control and the dog warden, are separate matters that a warden or the Gardaí may pursue.

A household insurance policy often covers an owner's liability for a dog; the wording says whether yours does and whether the dog had to be declared. Tell the insurer the day you learn of the injury. Where there is no cover, the claim is against you personally, and a solicitor would weigh it with you.

The injured person's side is in the dog bite guide, which points dog owners here.

Insurance: the duty to notify

Every one of these policies has a condition that you notify the insurer of any incident that may give rise to a claim, promptly and usually within a set number of days, and that you pass on any letter or notice at once and do not admit liability or negotiate without the insurer. A breach can affect cover for the very claim you are facing. So the order is: tell the insurer the day you learn of the injury, send it everything in writing as it arrives, and let it deal with the Board, the claimant's solicitor and the figure.

The Board recommends the same: a respondent should notify their insurer on receiving a Formal Notice, and the insurer usually deals with the Board on the respondent's behalf, returns the consent form and pays the €1,200 charge. Read the Board's FAQs for respondents beside your policy.

Preserve the evidence now

The Board assesses a claim on the claimant's documents, on the assumption that the respondent is fully liable, and decides no question of fault. If fault is ever decided, it is decided in a court, months or years later, on the evidence that still exists. The evidence that decides a premises or workplace case is the kind that disappears within weeks unless someone keeps it.

• CCTV: most systems overwrite in days or weeks. Save the footage of the incident and the period before and after it, and the footage that shows the floor being inspected or cleaned. Save it in a form that can be played later, and note who saved it and when.
• The accident book or incident report: complete it on the day, in the words of the people who were there, with the time, the place, the conditions and the names of witnesses. Do not add to it later; write a dated supplement instead.
• Records: cleaning schedules, inspection logs, maintenance records, the safety statement and the risk assessment, training records, the lease, the dog licence.
• Photographs of the place as it was on the day, with the sign, the lighting, the floor and the step.
• The names and contact details of staff and witnesses, before they move on.

A claimant's solicitor may write asking you to preserve exactly these things; a court can draw inferences where they were not kept.

What not to say

Say what you would say to anyone who was hurt in front of you: concern for them, and the practical things, their name and contact details, whether they need a doctor, the facts of what happened. The things that cause trouble later are statements about fault: "that step has always been a problem", "we should have put a sign out", "I knew the dog was nervous". Those are for the evidence, not for the moment, and once said they are quoted.

The same applies to the insurer's side of things. Do not tell the injured person what the insurer will or will not do, do not offer money, and do not sign anything the person or a solicitor sends without the insurer seeing it. Section 8 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 means a letter stating the nature of the wrong alleged will arrive within a month or so; it needs no reply from you beyond passing it to the insurer, who answers it. The section 8 letter guide explains what it is from the claimant's side.

The Board does not decide fault

The Formal Notice, the four options, the 90 days, the deemed consent and the €1,200 charge are in the Formal Notice guide. The point to carry from it is section 16 of the 2003 Act: consenting to an assessment is not an admission of liability. The Board puts a figure on the claim with regard to the Personal Injuries Guidelines; whether you pay it is decided by whether both sides accept, and whether you were responsible at all is decided, if it is ever decided, by a court after an Authorisation. Where you believe a claim is exaggerated, the exaggerated and false claims guide states what the law provides and leaves the rest to your insurer.

Where this leaves you

Tell the insurer, keep the evidence, say what happened and nothing about fault. The Board timeline shows the dates that follow a Formal Notice, so that you know what the insurer is doing and when.