After a serious dog bite, knowing who owned the dog is only part of the question.
For an injured person, another practical question quickly becomes important: Who actually pays the claim?
Depending on the circumstances, compensation may come from a homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. In some cases, a landlord or property owner may also face potential liability, but landlords are not automatically responsible simply because a tenant’s dog caused an injury.
When Is a Dog Owner Liable in Colorado?
Colorado has a specific dog-bite statute.
When a person lawfully on public or private property suffers serious bodily injury or death from a dog bite, the statute allows recovery of economic damages from the dog owner regardless of whether the dog previously showed dangerous tendencies or whether the owner knew the dog was dangerous.
Colorado also defines “dog owner” broadly. It can include a person or organization that owns, possesses, harbors, keeps, controls, or has custody of the dog.
Other legal theories may become relevant depending on the severity of the injury, what the owner knew about the animal, and how the attack occurred.
Does Homeowners Insurance Pay Dog Bite Claims?
Often, homeowners insurance is an important potential source of coverage.
Liability coverage under a homeowner’s policy may cover qualifying injuries caused by the insured’s dog, including incidents that occur away from the owner’s home. The exact protection depends on the policy.
Insurers can impose exclusions or restrictions involving animals, particular circumstances, prior incidents, or other policy provisions. Coverage should therefore be verified rather than assumed.
When coverage applies, the insurer may provide a defense to its insured and pay a settlement or judgment up to applicable policy limits.
What If the Dog Owner Rents Their Home?
A renter may have renters insurance containing personal liability coverage.
If the renter’s dog bites someone, that coverage may potentially respond much like liability coverage under a homeowner’s policy.
But not every renter carries renters insurance, and not every policy covers every dog-related claim.
After a serious attack at a rental property, determining whether the tenant has applicable insurance can therefore be a critical part of investigating the claim.
If there is no applicable coverage, the injured person may have to consider whether the dog owner has assets from which a judgment could realistically be collected.
Is the Landlord Responsible for a Tenant’s Dog?
Not automatically.
The fact that a landlord owns the building doesn’t, by itself, make the landlord responsible whenever a tenant’s dog bites someone.
Colorado courts have addressed landlord liability where the landlord knew of a tenant dog’s dangerous behavior. In one case, the Colorado Court of Appeals recognized a potential duty where landlords allegedly knew about a dog’s vicious actions before entering the rental agreement but still rented the property to the dog’s owner anyway.
A later Colorado case similarly concluded that a landlord could potentially be liable under the premises-liability framework when the necessary knowledge and other statutory requirements were established. In that case, however, the claim against the landlord failed because there was insufficient evidence that the landlord actually knew of the dog’s dangerous nature before leasing the property.
Landlord liability is therefore highly dependent on the facts.
What Evidence Can Matter in a Landlord Claim?
Evidence showing what the landlord knew, and when they knew it, can become especially important.
Prior complaints from neighbors or tenants, previous bite incidents, emails or text messages about aggressive behavior, lease provisions concerning animals, and communications with property management may all help establish the history surrounding the dog.
Control can matter too. A dog attack in an area controlled by the landlord may raise different issues from an attack inside premises entirely controlled by the tenant.
Colorado’s premises-liability rules generally examine the injured person’s legal status on the property, the landowner’s knowledge of the danger, and whether reasonable care was exercised under the circumstances.
Legal Guidance
A dog-bite claim may involve much more than identifying the animal’s owner.
Arckey & Steele can help injured Coloradans investigate who owned or controlled the dog and evaluate whether a landlord or other property owner may also bear responsibility.
