In premises liability law, visitors on a property are classified as either an invitee, licensee, or trespasser. The property owner’s duty of care varies depending on the visitor’s classification. An invitee is someone who is invited onto the property for a business purpose—for example, a customer at a grocery store or a patron at a restaurant. Invitees are owed the highest duty of care. The property owner must take reasonable steps to ensure the premises are safe for invitees—for instance, by inspecting the premises regularly for dangerous conditions, fixing dangerous conditions in a reasonable amount of time, and posting warnings about hazards that could cause injuries.
Licensees are social guests who are invited onto a property but not for the economic benefit of the property owner. Examples include a friend or neighbor who is visiting your home. Although property owners have a duty to remedy dangerous conditions that might injure a licensee and to warn licensees about such conditions, they don’t have a specific duty of inspection before inviting licensees onto the property. Also, property owners can only be held liable for injuries to licensees that are caused by dangerous conditions that the property owner knew or should have known about.
