The Intruder Came Through the Front Door While You Were Working Inside
You took a job cleaning a vacation rental in Fort Lauderdale. You showed up in the middle of the day. You were inside the home on SW 19th Street, doing what you were hired to do. Then a man came through that door, brandished a knife, put zip ties on your wrists, and did the unthinkable.
That is not a “tragedy.” That is a failure. A failure of locks, of cameras, of warnings, of a platform that markets itself as safe and a property owner who knew — because police had been called to that same address before — that danger was already on the property. We represent people who are hurt because someone else failed the most basic duty there is: keeping them from being attacked in a place they were told was safe enough to work.
If you are reading this in the days or weeks after an attack, we are sorry for what has happened to you. We want you to understand what the law can do about it, and we want to do it for you. We take cases like this in Fort Lauderdale and across Florida. There is no cost to talk to us, and you do not owe us anything unless we recover money for you. Call 1-888-ATTY-911 for a free consultation.
Florida Law Holds Property Owners Accountable When They Know About Danger and Do Nothing
Florida law is clear about the duty a property owner owes to people who are lawfully on the premises. Florida Statutes § 768.075 is the centerpiece of that duty. The statute requires owners and possessors of land to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. That duty includes warning about latent dangers and fixing or guarding against known hazards. It extends to people who are on the property for the purpose the owner has invited them — which is exactly what our client was doing. She was inside that Airbnb rental because the owner and the property manager had arranged for her to be there. She was an invitee under Florida law, not a trespasser, not a stranger. The property owner owed her a real duty of reasonable care.
The other key provision in a negligent security case in Florida is the requirement of foreseeability. A property owner is not the insurer of every person who comes onto the land. But the owner does have to take reasonable steps to protect against the kind of harm that is reasonably foreseeable. The test is whether a similar type of crime has occurred on or near the premises before, and whether the owner knew or should have known about it. Here, the answer is direct. The property had been robbed twice before. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department confirmed it. Foreseeability is not a question we have to argue around. The pattern is already in the police file.
Florida Statutes § 768.075, the premises liability statute, imposes on a possessor of land a duty to exercise reasonable care to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition for the benefit of invitees. That duty includes the obligation to warn of and protect against known dangers, including foreseeable criminal conduct by third parties.
Florida’s comparative fault rule is also important. Florida follows a modified comparative negligence standard with a 51% bar. A plaintiff can recover damages only if their share of fault is 50% or less. In a case like ours, this rule works in our favor. The fault here is the property owner’s, the platform’s, and the cleaning company’s. Our client was the one who was attacked. She did not contribute to her own victimization in any way that the law would recognize as fault. The fight will be over who among the defendants pays what share, not over whether she was at fault.
The Foreseeability Spine: Two Prior Robberies Is the Case
The single most important fact in this case, apart from the assault itself, is that this property had been robbed twice before. That is the foreseeability argument in a single sentence. In Florida negligent security cases, the plaintiff does not have to prove that the property owner predicted this exact crime on this exact day. The plaintiff has to prove that the kind of harm that occurred was reasonably foreseeable. Two prior robberies at the same address, confirmed by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, make the question of foreseeability a question for the jury to answer.
This is also where the case for punitive damages begins. Under Florida law, punitive damages are available when a defendant engages in conduct that is grossly negligent, or that shows a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others. A property owner who knows the home has been hit twice, who does not invest in basic security, and who keeps sending cleaning workers and guests into a property without warning, is conduct the law treats as exactly the kind of conscious disregard that supports a punitive award. The platform that markets the property as safe while turning a blind eye to the pattern is on the same legal ground. We do not guarantee any result, and punitive damages are not awarded in every case, but the legal vehicle is there, and the facts to support it are real.
What the Insurance Company Will Do, and How We Counter Every Move
The defendants in this case will not be writing checks out of their own pockets. The insurance companies behind them will be. Insurance companies have a playbook. They use it on every case. We know the playbook, and we counter every move. Here is what to expect.
Play 1: “Our driver/host/cleaner is an independent contractor, not our employee, so we are not responsible for what happened.”
This is the first move from the platform and the cleaning company. They will point to contracts that say the cleaner is an independent contractor, or that the host is an independent business. Florida law does not allow that contract to do all the work the company wants it to do. The doctrine of negligent entrustment holds the employer responsible when it puts a worker in a position of foreseeable harm, even if the worker is technically an independent contractor. The property owner has a non-delegable duty under Florida Statutes § 768.075 that cannot be contracted away. The platform that holds itself out as the gatekeeper of safety cannot disclaim that responsibility by saying the host is someone else. The contract may matter in some ways, but it does not end the inquiry. Our counter is to focus on what each defendant actually did, what each defendant knew, and what each defendant’s own conduct caused. Negligent entrustment, negligent hiring, negligent supervision, negligent training, and premises liability all attach to specific conduct, and we frame every count that way.
Play 2: “This was a criminal act by a third party. We are not responsible for the criminal acts of others.”
This is the property owner’s first instinct. The law is settled on this point. A property owner in Florida can be held liable for foreseeable criminal harm. The two prior robberies at the same address are the answer. Foreseeability is established as a matter of law when the owner knew, or should have known, that the same kind of harm had already happened at the property. The criminal act of the intruder does not absolve the property owner. It is the very thing the property owner should have prevented.
Play 3: “We’ll send a check quickly to make this go away.”
This is the third play, and it is the most dangerous for a survivor. Insurance adjusters know that a survivor who has just been through a sexual assault is in no position to evaluate a settlement offer. They know that medical bills are piling up. They know that the survivor cannot work. They know that the family is under enormous pressure. So they offer a number that sounds large but is a fraction of what the case is worth, and they ask the survivor to sign a release. Once the release is signed, every claim against every defendant in every case is gone forever. Our counter is simple: do not talk to the insurance company without us. We handle every conversation. We handle every document. We are the buffer between the survivor and the insurance machine. And we do not take a fee unless we recover.
Play 4: “We will not negotiate until you prove your injuries with documentation.”
This is the delay play. The insurance company wants to run out the clock. They want you to miss evidence, miss witnesses, miss the chance to file suit before the statute of limitations runs. We counter by moving fast. We send the preservation letters. We file suit to toll the limitations period. We move for expedited discovery. The defense will say we are moving too fast. The truth is that we are moving at the speed the case requires. If you want to read more about how insurance companies play the delay game, see our guide on what not to say to an insurance adjuster.
Florida’s Deadline: How Long You Have to File
The statute of limitations is the deadline the law gives you to file a lawsuit. If you miss it, your case is dead. Under Florida Statutes § 95.11(3)(a), the general statute of limitations for personal injury claims based on negligence in Florida is four years from the date of the incident. The incident in our Fort Lauderdale case occurred on August 28, 2024, which means the deadline to file a negligence-based claim is August 28, 2028.
For claims against the property owner and the platform, the four-year negligence deadline applies. For claims based on intentional torts like sexual battery against the attacker personally, the same four-year deadline under Florida Statutes § 95.11(3) generally applies, but the analysis is more complex when multiple defendants and theories are involved.
There are also important exceptions and tolling doctrines. If the case involves a claim that could not reasonably have been discovered until later, the discovery rule may extend the deadline. If the defendant concealed information, that concealment can toll the deadline. If the injured person was incapacitated, the disability tolls the deadline. If the defendant left the state, the deadline is tolled. Each of these doctrines requires its own factual development and legal analysis.
The bottom line is this: do not wait to call a lawyer. Four years sounds like a long time. It is not. Evidence disappears. Witnesses move. Documents are destroyed. The sooner we get started, the stronger your case will be. If you are reading this and wondering whether it is too late, the answer is almost always no — but the answer to that question requires a real legal analysis, which we provide for free.
What We Will Do For You, Step by Step
When you hire us on a case like this, here is what happens.
First 72 hours. We send the preservation letters. We notify the property owner, the property manager, the platform, the cleaning company, and their insurance carriers that a claim is being pursued and that all evidence must be preserved. We request the surveillance video, the guest records, the access code logs, the dispatch records, the training records, the prior incident reports, the insurance policy declarations, and the full police and incident history for the property. We coordinate with the criminal investigation to make sure the forensic evidence and the crime scene evidence are preserved. We file any necessary insurance claims to make sure our client’s medical bills are being addressed and that no insurance carrier uses delay as a reason to deny coverage.
Days to weeks. We pull the public records — the prior police reports on the two prior robberies, the property records showing ownership, the licensing records for the short-term rental, the corporate records for the property management company, the platform’s marketing materials and safety representations. We retain the experts — a security expert to testify about what reasonable security measures would have prevented the attack, a forensic economist to calculate lifetime economic damages, a life-care planner to calculate the cost of future medical and psychological care, and a forensic psychologist to document the psychological injuries and the long-term impact on our client’s life. We begin the medical records collection and we start the documentary spine of the case.
Months ahead. We file the lawsuit, serve the defendants, and litigate. We conduct discovery, take depositions, and push the case toward a trial date. Throughout, we keep our client informed of every step. We are not the kind of firm that disappears after the intake. We are the kind of firm that is on the phone with you, answering your questions, walking you through the process, and making sure you understand what is happening at every stage.
The work that wins or loses a case like this is the work done in the first 72 hours. That is when evidence is preserved or lost. That is when the right defendants are named or missed. That is when the right expert is retained or the case is left to be tried on the defendant’s terms. We do that work. We have been doing that work for more than 24 years.
Frequently Asked Questions
I was sexually assaulted while cleaning a vacation rental. Can I sue the property owner?
Yes, in most cases. Under Florida Statutes § 768.075, a property owner owes a duty of reasonable care to people who are lawfully on the premises, including workers like cleaning staff. That duty includes taking reasonable security measures to prevent foreseeable criminal harm. If the property had a history of prior crimes and the owner did not take reasonable steps to address that risk, the owner can be held liable for the harm that results. The fact that the attack was committed by a third-party criminal does not absolve the property owner — the law specifically contemplates third-party criminal conduct as the kind of harm the owner has a duty to prevent when it is foreseeable. In our Fort Lauderdale case, the foreseeability question is already answered by the two prior robberies confirmed by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Can I sue Airbnb, the platform, for what happened to me at one of its listed properties?
That depends on the facts and the evolving state of Florida law, but the platform can be on the hook. Airbnb is not just a passive website. It markets properties as safe and verified. It tells the public that listings on its platform meet certain standards. It controls which hosts can list and what those hosts must do. When the platform’s own marketing, vetting, and safety representations are false, or when the platform turns a blind eye to red flags because the listings keep generating revenue, the law allows juries to hold the platform responsible. Florida has specific statutes regulating short-term rental platforms, and the platform’s own representations to the public become evidence of what it owed. There are also theories of negligent entrustment, negligent training of hosts, and failure to warn that can apply to a platform.
What is the deadline to file a sexual assault premises liability case in Florida?
For negligence-based claims against the property owner, the platform, and the cleaning company, the deadline is four years from the date of the incident under Florida Statutes § 95.11(3)(a). For other types of claims, the deadlines can differ. The discovery rule can extend the deadline in cases where the injury could not reasonably have been discovered right away. Disability, concealment by the defendant, and other doctrines can also toll the deadline. The safest course is to talk to a lawyer as soon as possible so we can identify the right deadline for the right claim and the right defendant. If you are even slightly worried you may be late, call us. The consultation is free.
I was a contract cleaner, not an employee of the property owner. Does that matter?
It does not end the case. Under Florida law, the property owner owes a duty of reasonable care to people who are lawfully on the property, regardless of their employment status. The cleaning company that contracted with you has its own duties. The fact that you were a contract worker does not reduce the property owner’s obligation to keep the premises safe. The fact that you were working alone in a property with a documented history of prior robberies is, in fact, evidence that the cleaning company and the property owner should have taken additional precautions. Your status as a contract worker is not a defense. It may affect the workers’ compensation analysis, but it does not eliminate the right to sue the property owner and the platform for negligent security.
What if the criminal case is still pending and no one has been arrested?
You can still file a civil case, and you should. Florida civil cases move on their own timeline. The criminal investigation is the responsibility of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the Broward County State Attorney. Our civil case is about the responsibility of the property owner, the platform, and the cleaning company for failing to provide a safe environment. We do not need a criminal conviction — or even an arrest — to pursue the civil case. The civil case is decided on a different standard of proof, and the evidence we use is different from what the State Attorney uses. We can move forward with the civil case while the criminal investigation continues, and the two cases will run in parallel. The criminal investigation can actually help the civil case, because anything the intruder does or says that connects to the property, the platform, or the cleaning company becomes evidence we can use.
What evidence needs to be preserved right now in a case like this?
Everything. Specifically, the surveillance video from the property and from neighboring properties, the property’s guest and access records, the prior police reports on the two prior robberies, the cleaning company’s dispatch and training records, the platform’s internal communications and safety policies, the host’s communications with the property manager, the property management system’s history, and the forensic evidence from the criminal investigation. Most of this evidence is held by the defendants. The defendants do not voluntarily preserve it. We send a formal preservation demand that creates a legal duty to maintain the evidence, and if the evidence is destroyed after that demand, we can ask the court to instruct the jury that the missing evidence would have hurt the defense. The earlier we send that demand, the stronger that argument becomes. That is why the first 72 hours matter so much.
How much is my case worth?
It depends on the facts, but for a negligent security sexual assault case in Florida with a documented history of prior crimes at the property, the realistic range of recovery is between $1.5 million and $15 million or more. The range depends on the severity of the physical and psychological injuries, the long-term impact on earning capacity, the cost of future medical and mental health care, and the conduct of the defendants. Punitive damages are available in Florida when a defendant’s conduct shows a conscious disregard for the safety of others, and a property owner who knows about prior robberies and does not invest in basic security is exactly the kind of defendant punitive damages exist to reach. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. We can give you a realistic assessment of your case’s value in a free consultation. To understand how damages are typically built in catastrophic injury cases, you can read about our brain injury and workplace accident practice areas.
Will the insurance company offer a fair settlement quickly?
Almost certainly not. The first offer from the insurance company will be a lowball designed to get the case resolved before the full extent of the injuries is known. Insurance companies have a playbook for sexual assault and negligent security cases, and the first chapter of that playbook is to make a quick offer that sounds reasonable but is a fraction of the case’s true value. We do not let our clients sign releases without understanding exactly what they are giving up. We handle every communication with the insurance company. We build the case so that when we do negotiate, we are negotiating from a position of strength, not from a position of financial pressure. You can read more about the insurance company tactics we see in our what not to say to an insurance adjuster video and our insurance claim denial video.
I am not sure I am ready to file a lawsuit. What should I do right now?
Call us. The consultation is free. There is no obligation. We will tell you what we think, what the case is worth, and what the realistic path forward looks like. We will also tell you if we are not the right firm for your case — we do that too, because the most important thing is that you get the right help. Calling us does not commit you to anything. It just gives you the information you need to make a real decision. The number is 1-888-ATTY-911. We are available 24/7. Hablamos Español.
Why This Case Matters Beyond the Individual
A sexual assault in a vacation rental is not a one-off tragedy. It is the predictable outcome of an industry that has built its business model on marketing safety without delivering it. The platform profits from every booking. The property owner profits from every rental night. The cleaning company profits from every clean. None of those companies pay the price when the system fails. The person who pays the price is the worker who is alone in the home when the intruder comes through the door.
Florida law gives victims of this kind of failure a real legal remedy. The combination of premises liability, negligent security, negligent entrustment, and Florida’s modified comparative fault system is designed to put the cost of the failure on the defendants who caused it, not on the survivor. That is the system we work in. We do not apologize for taking cases against property owners, platforms, and employers. We do it because the alternative is letting those defendants externalize the cost of their own failures onto the people least able to bear it. We built our practice on the other side of that ledger.
If you or someone you love was hurt in a vacation rental, a hotel, an apartment, or any property where the owner should have done more, we want to talk to you. The call is free. The consultation is private. There is no fee unless we win. Hablamos Español. We serve your family fully in English or in Spanish, and we will fight for the full measure of the recovery the law allows. Call 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911) any time, day or night.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.