Can You Sue for Negligent Security in Florida?

Yes. Florida law lets you sue a property owner or manager when a foreseeable crime, committed by someone else, injures you because reasonable security was missing. But timing and the fine print changed dramatically after 2023, and both work against you the longer you wait.

Three facts matter right now. Florida’s statute of limitations for most negligence claims dropped to two years. State law now forces juries to weigh the fault of the criminal who attacked you, alongside the property owner’s fault. And apartment and condo owners who install specific security measures can claim a legal presumption against liability.

File within two years of the incident in most cases
Expect the criminal’s fault to be weighed against the property owner’s
Multifamily properties may qualify for a liability presumption if they met listed security standards

Pro Tip: Don’t wait to see how you feel. Preserve evidence and call a Florida premises-liability attorney within days, not months, of the attack.

Key Takeaways

Florida negligent security claims now hinge on proving foreseeable danger while fighting a shortened filing deadline and new fault-apportionment rules favoring property owners.

Point	Details
Two-year deadline	File within two years of the incident under §95.11(5)(a); older cases may fall under the prior four-year rule.
Fault gets split	F.S. 768.0701 requires juries to weigh the criminal’s fault alongside the property owner’s, often reducing payouts.
Multifamily presumption exists	Owners meeting listed security measures under §768.0706 can claim a presumption against liability.
Evidence disappears fast	Surveillance footage, witness memory, and scene conditions can vanish within days or weeks.
Haddad & Associates offers free reviews	The firm brings 125+ years of combined experience and starts evidence preservation immediately at no upfront cost.

This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Consult a qualified legal professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.

What Negligent Security Means Under Florida Law

Negligent security is not an accusation that the property owner robbed, assaulted, or attacked you. It’s a claim that the owner’s carelessness, poor lighting, absent cameras, unlocked gates, made the crime possible or more likely. Florida treats it as a category of premises liability: the duty runs from the property owner to a lawful visitor, and it hinges on whether the owner should have foreseen the danger.

Courts call this the “zone of risk.” If an owner creates or controls an environment where criminal activity is a known or predictable hazard, a duty to guard against it can attach. That duty doesn’t require the owner to prevent every crime. It requires reasonable precautions once the risk is foreseeable.

These claims show up most often in specific settings:

Apartment complexes and multifamily housing
Parking garages and surface lots
Hotels and short-term rentals
Bars, nightclubs, and late-night retail
Shopping centers and standalone retail stores

What You Must Prove to Win a Negligent Security Case

Florida negligent security claims rest on four legal pillars, the same ones underlying every negligence case, but applied to a criminal act instead of an accident.

Duty and foreseeability. The owner owed you a duty of reasonable care, typically because you were an invitee or licensee on the property, and the crime that hurt you was foreseeable. Prior similar incidents on or near the property, documented crime patterns in the area, and any security promises the owner made all help establish this.
Breach. The owner failed to meet that duty. Cameras that don’t record, unlit parking areas, broken exterior locks, or missing security patrols where they were previously provided are common evidence of breach.
Causation. The missing security measure has to connect directly to how the crime happened, not just exist in the abstract.
Damages. Medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering all flow from that causal chain.

Florida’s appellate courts don’t apply foreseeability identically statewide. Some districts lean on prior similar incidents at the property; others look at the totality of circumstances, including broader neighborhood crime data. That split shapes how your attorney builds the elements of a premises liability claim.

Pro Tip: If a security guard was cut from the property’s budget six months before your attack, that staffing history can become some of your strongest foreseeability evidence.

How HB 837 Changed Negligent Security Claims in Florida

House Bill 837 didn’t just shorten deadlines. It rewrote how fault gets divided in these cases, and that shift cuts straight into your recovery.

Under Florida Statute § 768.0701, the jury must now weigh the fault of every contributor to your injury, including the criminal who attacked you, alongside the property owner’s negligence. Before this law, Florida courts largely barred apportioning fault to intentional criminal actors in these cases. Now, a jury might assign a larger portion of fault to an unnamed assailant and a smaller portion to the property owner, which can reduce what you can collect from the owner.

Separately, § 768.0706 gives multifamily property owners a presumption against liability if they can prove “substantial implementation” of listed measures:

Security camera systems retaining footage for at least 30 days
Adequate parking lot and common area lighting
One-inch deadbolt locks on individual units
Locked pool gates and working peepholes
A completed Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) assessment
Documented employee security training

The burden sits on the owner to prove substantial implementation, not on you to disprove it. Expect this presumption to drive earlier evidence preservation fights and more aggressive summary judgment motions from property owners’ insurers.

How Long Do You Have to File a Negligent Security Claim?

Timing now works against injured Floridians in a way it didn’t before 2023.

Most negligence claims, including negligent security, must be filed within two years of the incident under Florida Statute § 95.11(5)(a), a change enacted through HB 837.
If your injury happened before March 24, 2023, the older four-year window may still apply, but accrual dates get complicated fast and deserve a lawyer’s review rather than a guess.
Waiting even a few months costs you leverage. Security footage gets overwritten, witnesses move, and property conditions change.

Two years sounds like plenty of time until you realize how much evidence disappears in the first thirty days. Review the full Florida lawsuit timeline to see where your case likely sits right now.

What to Do Immediately After a Negligent Security Incident

The steps you take in the first 48 hours often decide whether your case survives a summary judgment motion months later.

Get medical care immediately, even if injuries seem minor, and keep every bill, discharge paper, and treatment note.
Call the police and get an official incident report with a case number. Request a copy for your records.
Photograph everything: broken locks, dead light fixtures, camera placement, signage, and your own injuries. Note the exact time and lighting conditions.
Collect witness contact information on the spot, and ask them to preserve any texts, photos, or videos they took.
Request surveillance footage in writing, addressed to the property owner or manager, and note the date and time you asked. If they delay or refuse, document that too.

Pro Tip: Surveillance systems often overwrite footage on a rolling cycle as short as seven days. A same-day written request, even a simple email, can be the difference between having proof and having nothing.

How Comparative Fault Reduces What You Can Recover

Below that threshold, your award shrinks by your percentage of fault.

Apportionment to the criminal actor complicates this further. Because juries now weigh the assailant’s fault alongside the owner’s, insurers push hard to load fault onto the “phantom defendant,” the unnamed or unidentified criminal, since that percentage doesn’t touch the plaintiff’s own responsibility but does reduce what the owner pays.

Strategies that limit your exposure and maximize owner responsibility include:

Documenting that you followed all posted safety rules
Showing the owner had specific, prior notice of danger
Establishing that basic security measures were removed or ignored despite known risk

Understanding how comparative negligence applies in Florida before you give a recorded statement to any insurer can protect your position from the outset.

Haddad & Associates’ Approach to Negligent Security Cases

With more than 125 years of combined experience, our attorneys move fast on evidence preservation, surveillance requests, and prior-incident research the moment a case comes in. We work on contingency, meaning you pay nothing upfront, and every consultation is free. You deserve a firm that treats your case as more than a file number.

Get a Free Case Review Before Evidence Disappears

You’ve read the deadlines and the apportionment rules. Now here’s what actually happens if you wait: footage gets erased, witnesses forget details, and insurers build their “criminal actor” defense while you’re still recovering. Haddad & Associates offers a free case review for negligent security claims, and we move on evidence preservation the same day you call.

Bring what you have, even if it’s incomplete: the police report and case number, photos of the scene, medical records, witness names and numbers, and your best recollection of dates and times. If you’re also fielding calls from an insurance adjuster, read our guide on handling insurance companies after an injury before you say anything on the record. Call Haddad & Associates today. The two-year clock is already running.

Sources

Florida Statutes § 768.0701 (2025)

FAQ

What is negligent security?

Negligent security is a premises liability claim alleging a property owner’s failure to provide reasonable safety measures, like lighting, locks, or cameras, allowed a foreseeable crime to injure a lawful visitor.

What is the negligence rule in Florida?

What are the four proofs of negligence?

You must show duty, breach, causation, and damages, meaning the owner owed you reasonable care, failed to provide it, that failure caused your injury, and you suffered measurable losses.

What is the 33 day rule in Florida?

There is no established deadline tied to negligent security claims in Florida law beyond the two-year statute of limitations; if you encountered other terms elsewhere, ask an attorney to clarify what deadline or procedure it references in your specific case.

Does Haddad & Associates handle negligent security cases in Florida?

Yes. Haddad & Associates represents injured Floridians in negligent security and premises liability claims, offering free case reviews and contingency-fee representation.