Short-term rentals have multiplied across the LaFollette area, in cabins and lake houses near Norris Lake, in homes around the Cumberland Mountain country, and throughout Campbell County, drawing visitors who put their safety in the hands of a host they have often never met.
A short-term rental looks like an ordinary private home, but when a guest is injured by an unsafe condition in one, the claim runs under the same premises-liability principles that govern any property. But one question is added to the front: Who actually controlled the part of the property where the injury occurred? The answer can reach the host, a property manager, a cleaning or maintenance service, or others, and identifying who actually held control of the hazard is what shapes the entire claim.
At Fox & Farmer, we help establish who controlled the property and pursue the full recovery the law allows. Our lawyers represent guests and others injured at short-term rentals in LaFollette and across Campbell County; no fee unless there is a recovery. Call us at 865-531-9400 for a free consultation.
A short-term rental injury is a premises-liability claim, and it rests on the duty of the person who controlled the property to keep it reasonably safe for the people invited onto it. A host who offers a home to paying guests owes them a duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition and to warn of hidden dangers the host knows or should know about. This is the same duty any property owner owes to invited guests.
The threshold question that a rental adds is who held that control, because a short-term rental can involve several parties. The one who controlled the hazard is the one who answers for it, even though a guest arriving for a weekend has no way of knowing in advance which party it will turn out to be.
This matters because a short-term rental layers responsibilities in a way an ordinary home does not. The host may own and manage the property directly, or a property-management company may run it on the owner's behalf, or a cleaning or maintenance service may be responsible for the condition that caused the injury.
When a hazard arises from something one of these parties controlled, a loose stair rail the host never fixed, a slippery surface the cleaning service left, a maintenance failure a management company ignored, responsibility follows control. The injured guest does not always know, at first, which party was responsible, which is why the early investigation into who controlled the condition matters as much as proving the hazard itself.
The platform through which the rental was booked, such as Airbnb or VRBO, is generally not the responsible party for an unsafe condition, because it does not control the property; it provides the booking service. Responsibility instead rests with the parties who actually controlled the home and its condition, the host and any manager or service they engaged.
This is the same control-based analysis at the heart of any LaFollette premises liability claim, applied to the particular layering of a short-term rental, and sorting out who controlled what is where a rental-injury case begins.
Short-term rental guests are exposed to the same hazards that cause injuries in any home, often made worse because a guest is unfamiliar with the property and a host may maintain it less carefully than a full-time resident would.
Falls are common: unsafe or poorly lit stairways, loose or missing handrails, unmarked changes in level, slippery surfaces, and hazards around decks and balconies that a guest does not expect.
Swimming pools and hot tubs at a rental present serious drowning and injury risks, particularly where safety features, fencing, or warnings are inadequate. A guest, and especially a guest's child, may have no idea that a pool gate does not latch or that a hot tub cover is broken, hazards the host knew or should have known about and failed to address.
Some of the gravest rental hazards are the ones the guest cannot see. Carbon monoxide from a faulty furnace, water heater, fireplace, or generator is a silent and potentially fatal danger. A rental that lacks working carbon monoxide detectors puts guests at risk of a poisoning they would have no way to detect in time.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's data on carbon monoxide poisoning documents that it causes deaths and emergency visits each year. A host's failure to install and maintain detectors can be a serious breach of the duty owed to guests.
Fire hazards from faulty wiring or missing smoke detectors, defective appliances, and inadequate security are among the other dangers that a host's failure to maintain or warn can turn into a serious injury, the kind of harm that gives rise to any LaFollette personal injury claim built around a property owner's neglect.
Guests staying at Airbnb and other short-term rentals around Norris Lake may suffer injuries from falls, unsafe stairs and decks, dock and waterfront hazards, pool and hot tub accidents, and other dangerous property conditions that the host or property manager failed to maintain.
Many of the short-term rentals in the LaFollette area are not traditional suburban homes. Instead, they are cabins, lake houses, and vacation properties built into the steep hills surrounding Norris Lake or tucked into the Cumberland Mountains.
These properties feature long stairways, elevated decks, private docks, boat slips, retaining walls, and winding outdoor paths that require regular inspection and maintenance. Campbell County promotes Norris Lake as a destination for cabins, lake houses, boating, and outdoor recreation, and many rentals offer direct or nearby access to the water.
Those features make a vacation memorable, but they also create hazards that can cause serious injuries when they are not properly maintained. Falls are among the most common. A loose deck board, broken handrail, uneven stone walkway, or deteriorated staircase leading to a dock can cause a guest to suffer fractures, spinal injuries, or traumatic brain injuries.
Because many Norris Lake homes are built on steep terrain, stairways and walkways are longer and more challenging than those found at an ordinary residence, making proper lighting, secure railings, and routine maintenance especially important. Listings for lakefront rentals often tout direct dock access, waterfront stairways, and elevated outdoor living areas, all of which require ongoing maintenance to remain safe.
Private docks and waterfront amenities present additional risks. Slippery dock surfaces, loose boards, unstable ladders, damaged gangways, and poorly maintained boat-access areas can lead to serious falls.
Many rentals also provide amenities such as hot tubs, fire pits, game rooms, or access to kayaks and other recreational equipment. When those features are defective, improperly maintained, or accompanied by inadequate warnings, they can create foreseeable dangers for guests who are unfamiliar with the property and reasonably expect it to have been prepared for their arrival.
The fact that a property is marketed as a vacation destination does not reduce the owner's responsibility to maintain it safely. If a dangerous condition on a Norris Lake rental causes injury, the same question governs the claim as with any premises-liability case: who controlled the area where the hazard existed, and did that party fail to exercise reasonable care to protect guests from an unreasonable risk of harm?
Responsibility for a short-term rental injury follows control of the property and the hazard, and more than one party can share it. The host who owns the rental is the central responsible party, owing guests the duty to maintain the property safely and to warn of known dangers. A host who failed in that duty answers for the harm. When the host engages others, responsibility can extend to them as well.
| Possible responsible party | When they may be responsible | What it depends on |
|---|---|---|
| The host or owner | They controlled and failed to maintain the property | The duty owed to invited guests |
| A property manager | They ran the property and ignored a hazard | The scope of their control |
| A cleaning or maintenance service | Their work created or left the hazard | What they controlled and did |
| The booking platform | Generally not, for an unsafe condition | It does not control the property |
A property-management company that operates the rental on the owner's behalf can be responsible if it controlled the condition that caused the injury or ignored a hazard it should have addressed. A cleaning or maintenance service can be responsible where its work created the danger, a freshly mopped floor left without warning, a repair done improperly, or where it failed to do what it was hired to do.
Insurance is what makes a recovery possible, and a host's homeowner's or specialized short-term-rental policy, or a management company's coverage, may apply, which is why identifying every responsible party and the coverage behind each is an important part of the claim. Determining who controlled the hazard determines who is responsible for it and which insurer responds.
A short-term rental case is built by establishing who held control of the part of the property and the condition that caused the injury, and the evidence for that is available soon after the injury.
The booking records and the listing show what was rented and what the host represented about it; the communications with the host can reveal what the host knew about a condition and whether it had been reported before. Together, these help fix who was responsible for maintaining the area where the injury happened.
The physical evidence is just as important and far more perishable. A photograph of the hazard, as it was, a missing handrail, a pooled-water hazard, a furnace with no nearby detector, captures a condition the host may repair within hours of learning of the injury.
If a maintenance or cleaning service was involved, records of their work can show whether their action created the danger or whether a needed repair was never done. Securing this evidence early, before the host alters the property, allows control to be traced to the responsible party.
Witnesses help complete the picture. Others staying at the rental, neighbors, and anyone who serviced the property can speak to the condition and to who controlled it. Their accounts, gathered while memories are fresh, can corroborate the records and the physical proof. Building the claim on this combined evidence is what answers the question of who controlled the hazard and therefore who answers for the harm.
Tennessee applies modified comparative fault, the rule from McIntyre v. Balentine, under which an injured person recovers only if found less than 50 percent at fault. The recovery is reduced by the share assigned and barred at 50 percent or more.
In a rental-injury case, the host's insurer may argue the guest was careless or should have seen and avoided the hazard. It draws on the open-and-obvious doctrine, which under Coln v. City of Savannah Tennessee folds into the comparative fault analysis rather than treating it as an automatic bar.
A guest unfamiliar with a property cannot be expected to know its hidden hazards, which weighs against shifting fault onto the guest. Unlike a resident who knows every loose board and dim stairwell, a guest is encountering the home for the first time and reasonably relies on the host to have made it safe.
Answering the blame-shifting means showing that the responsible party controlled the hazard and failed to address it, and that the guest was acting reasonably in an unfamiliar place. If a host or manager lets a dangerous condition persist, and a guest encounters it in the ordinary use of the rental, the fault rests with the party that controlled the hazard. Establishing that control and failure, and the reasonableness of the guest's conduct, keeps the guest's share below the line that would reduce or bar recovery.
Compensation in a serious rental-injury case must capture the full extent of the harm, including past and future medical care, lost income and earning capacity, and the non-economic harms of pain, disability, and a changed life.
In LaFollette, a guest seriously hurt at a rental is usually taken first to the county's hospital, Tennova Healthcare - LaFollette Medical Center, with its 24-hour emergency department on East Central Avenue. The most critical injuries are treated at the Level I trauma center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, about forty-five minutes to the south.
If a rental hazard causes a death, such as a carbon monoxide poisoning or a fatal fall, the family's LaFollette wrongful death claim rests on the same proof of who controlled the hazard and failed to address it. The wrongful death statute of limitations period runs from the date of the negligent act, not the date of death.
Get medical care promptly, both for your health and to document the injury and tie it to the rental. This is especially urgent with a hidden hazard like carbon monoxide, where prompt treatment can be lifesaving, and the medical record can confirm the cause. Follow through on recommended treatment, as gaps in care can give an insurer grounds to argue that the injury was not serious.
If you can, photograph the hazard that caused your injury and the surrounding area right away, before the host repairs or changes it. That condition is powerful evidence that often disappears quickly. Preserve your booking records, the listing, and any communications with the host, as these can help establish who had control of the home and what the host knew.
Get the names and contact information of any witnesses, including others staying at the rental. Report the injury to the host and, where a platform was used, through its system, creating a record of the incident and the date it occurred that the host cannot later dispute.
Do not give any insurer a recorded statement or accept an early settlement before you have advice. Then, reach out to a lawyer promptly to secure evidence establishing control and the hazard before it is altered.
The platform itself is not responsible for an unsafe condition at a rental, because it provides the booking service and does not control the property. Responsibility instead rests with the parties who controlled the home and its condition, typically the host and any property manager or service they engaged.
It depends on who held control of the home and the hazard. The host or owner is the primary responsible party, but a property-management company that ran the rental, or a cleaning or maintenance service whose work created the danger, may also be responsible. Identifying who controlled the hazard is the key question.
A host's failure to install and maintain working carbon monoxide detectors can be a serious breach of the duty owed to guests, because carbon monoxide is a hidden and potentially fatal hazard that a guest cannot detect. Where that failure causes a poisoning, the host may be responsible for the resulting harm.
A host's homeowner's policy or a specialized short-term-rental policy covers guest injuries, and a property manager may carry separate coverage. Because more than one policy may apply, identifying every responsible party and the coverage behind each is an important part of the claim.
Not necessarily. Under Coln v. City of Savannah, Tennessee treats the open-and-obvious nature of a hazard as part of the comparative fault analysis rather than an automatic bar, and a guest unfamiliar with a property cannot be expected to know its hidden dangers, which often weighs against shifting fault onto the guest.
Yes, as long as you were less than 50 percent at fault, with your recovery reduced by your share. Because the host's insurer will try to assign fault to you, countering that with evidence that the responsible party controlled and failed to address the hazard is part of the claim.
You have one year from the date of the injury under Tennessee Code Annotated section 28-3-104 to file a claim. The deadline is extended to two years where criminal charges arise from the same conduct.
These claims are handled on a contingency basis, meaning no fee unless there is a recovery. The first consultation is always free, so understanding your options and where you stand costs you nothing.
Although LaFollette is the largest city in Campbell County, the county seat is neighboring Jacksboro, so a serious rental-injury suit is brought in the Campbell County Circuit Court in Jacksboro, just southwest of LaFollette, in the county's fourth courthouse, completed in 1926. A serious rental injury suit is filed in Campbell County Circuit Court only if it exceeds $25,000; General Sessions Court handles lower-value cases.
With experience handling cases in Campbell County and throughout the greater Knoxville area, our attorneys know how to determine who controlled a short-term rental, identify every potentially responsible party and applicable insurance policy, and handle cases in the Campbell County courts.
A short-term rental case turns on who controlled the property and the hazard, and Fox & Farmer builds these cases to establish that control, reach every source of coverage, and document the full cost of a serious injury, including from hidden dangers like carbon monoxide that a guest could not have detected. The goal is a recovery that reflects the true harm the host's or manager's failure caused, not the discounted figure an insurer offers when it argues the guest should have avoided the danger.
Because the evidence that establishes control fades, the sooner you reach out to us, the more we can do to protect your claim. Your consultation is entirely free, and you owe no fee of any kind unless we recover. Contact our team to tell us what happened.
