Digital Assistants for Legal Safety Regulations: Making It Safe and Simple!

What are Legal Safety Regulations? 

Legal safety regulations require property owners to ensure that no dangers emanate from their property, buildings, or associated infrastructure. This includes slip-resistant flooring, safe staircases in hallways, and snow removal in winter. For example, if an unnoticed pothole on a private walkway causes a fall, or an unsecured balcony drops loose parts, property owners may be held liable.

Legal safety regulations, therefore, are the duty to avoid potential accidents and damages – a vital protection for pedestrians, tenants, and anyone near the building.

What Are Legal Safety Obligations?

Legal safety obligations include the tools and measures that owners and landlords use to secure potential hazards on their property. These include items such as barrier tape, signs, lighting, railings or non-slip mats – all of which help to prevent accidents and protect third parties from harm. Consider a construction site: barriers, warning signs, and coverings for excavations are classic examples of measures to ensure legal safety regulations.

In residential and commercial properties, these measures also play a significant role. Well-lit stairs, a sign indicating freshly mopped floors or a securely attached railing – all these help to ensure that tenants, visitors and passers-by can move around safely. In short, legal safety regulations are all those visible and invisible precautions that help to minimize possible risks and thus fulfill the duty of legal safety regulations for property owners.

Who is subject to the duty of legal safety regulations?

The responsibility for the duty of legal safety regulations lies with the owner of the property or building. The basic rule is: anyone who exercises actual control over a property or building must ensure that it does not pose any danger to third parties. This means that owners themselves are obliged to recognize dangers and act accordingly, whether by regular inspection or by hiring specialized companies. However, the duty of legal safety regulations can be partially transferred to third parties, leaving the owner with only a duty to monitor the implementation. A classic example is the obligation to grit and clear snow in winter: many property owners transfer this responsibility to their tenants or an operator, e.g. a property management company, through contractual arrangements. However, it is important that this transfer of duties is clearly regulated – otherwise the responsibility remains with the property owner. 

In practice, the fulfillment of the duty of legal safety regulations is often distributed among several parties, which can quickly lead to confusion. Owners, users of the property (e.g. tenants) and operators (who may be different entities) bear responsibility for the safety obligations to varying degrees. While the practical implementation of controls or measures is often delegated to users or managers, the owner always has a control and monitoring obligation to ensure that all measures are properly implemented. Particular focus should therefore be placed on coordination and organization in the context of ensuring public safety. Only with a precise inspection plan with responsibilities and detailed documentation can these obligations be optimally fulfilled. With digital solutions, the administration and control of these operator responsibilities can be significantly simplified to ensure a clear structure and smooth processes.

Who is liable if someone falls on my property? 

Let's explain the whole thing using a fairly simple example: Suppose a visitor enters a residential building and falls down the stairs due to a defective railing. The question of liability quickly becomes relevant. In principle, anyone who has neglected their duty to maintain safety can be held liable for the damage. This means that owners must ensure safety on their property and in their buildings – whether they do it themselves or hire third parties to do it. The tasks range from removing tripping hazards to ensuring that paths are gritted in ice and snow. So if, for example, the banister in the stairwell has not been checked for a long time or the damage was known but not repaired, the injured party can, under certain circumstances, claim compensation or damages. However, those affected must also take care: if the danger was obvious and they still did not pay attention, this can reduce liability. 

It is therefore important that property owners take their obligations seriously and regularly check the property for possible sources of danger (or have it checked) – and also document this in writing to be covered in an emergency. A digital solution such as the PROMOS solution for quality management and legal safety regulations (QMVKS) can provide support here. Ideally, this should not only enable the documentation of the maintenance and inspections carried out. It also facilitates the control of due inspection tasks based on central inspection plans and enables integrated order processing with third parties when a defect is detected.

Practical tips for fulfilling the duty of legal safety regulations

For landlords and property owners, it is often a challenge to reliably fulfill their duty to maintain safety in everyday life. Regular checks, inspections and clear documentation are a central part of this duty. The first step is to create an inspection plan: What needs to be checked or maintained, when and by whom? Staircases, handrails, lighting and outdoor areas should be regularly checked for possible hazards and to ensure they are in working order. Regular inspection and maintenance of electrical systems or elevators are also an important part of a good inspection plan. Safety apps and software support the creation and management of inspection plans and the control of tasks. They help to clearly assign responsibilities, set deadlines and monitor all processes.

Documentation is the final step: all measures can be recorded digitally. With these functions, safety maintenance apps and software not only provide reminders and checklists, but also enable a comprehensive and digital overview of all tasks and responsibilities – ideal for optimally managing the various parties involved and fulfilling the control obligations that always remain with the owner. This makes it easy and efficient for owners to fulfill their duty of legal safety regulations.

What can a property maintenance app do? 

A property maintenance app or software for property maintenance offers efficient support for landlords and property owners to help them easily fulfill their obligations. With the app, regular inspections and maintenance can be easily planned, assigned and documented. Reminders and checklists help to ensure that no important checks are forgotten – whether it be the inspection of stairwells, sidewalks or outdoor facilities. An integrated photo function improves the documentation options. Apps that offer the option of directly commissioning the removal of defects are useful – and fully integrated.

Apps that store all maintenance histories and documents in one central location are optimal. This not only offers the advantage of clear administration, but can also serve as proof of regular inspections and maintenance in the event of damage.

In short, a well-thought-out and cleverly designed app or software for legal safety regulations makes it significantly easier for owners and operators to comply with their traffic safety obligations, saves time and ensures that all obligations are digitally documented.

A major advantage of the easysquare solution for quality management and legal safety regulations (QMVKS) from PROMOS is its connection to the central SAP® system, which automatically manages cyclical tasks and maintenance. The mobile execution of the tests directly in the Professional App simplifies the process: those responsible can document on-site inspections, capture defects with photos and forward this information immediately to external service providers to quickly commission the necessary repairs. 

The maintenance of inventory data is also simplified because all data is stored centrally and is available at all times. Centralized maintenance history and document storage also ensures clarity and transparency, as every inspection is fully documented. This means that in the event of damage, owners and landlords have a traceable record of all control and maintenance measures. In short, the safety maintenance app makes it significantly easier to comply with and manage safety maintenance obligations, saves time and ensures that all obligations are digitally documented in an ideal way.

Conclusion

The duty of legal safety regulations is an important and legally binding task for operators and owners that improves the protection of third parties. Even though the multitude of regulations and measures can seem challenging at first glance, but digital solutions offer practical support. Safety maintenance apps help to plan inspections, document sources of danger and store evidence centrally – simply and efficiently. This way, owners and operators can reliably fulfill their responsibilities while saving time and nerves.

Many German real estate companies, such as ProPotsdam GmbH and TAG Immobilien AG, have already minimized risks in this way. BUWOG Group GmbH in Austria has also greatly simplified the implementation of its duty of legal safety regulations for its employees with PROMOS QMVKS. The solution is so flexible that it can be used for much more than just ensuring public safety: It is suitable for numerous applications, such as technical plant management, compliance with internal quality standards, or the optimization of operational processes.

With the right tools, ensuring public safety becomes a manageable routine – and the solution becomes a versatile tool for a wide range of requirements. Are you unsure what the best solution is for you? Talk to us – we would be happy to work with you to create a digital roadmap for easily fulfilling the dreaded public safety obligations!