Duty of Care: What Nevada Property Owners Owe Visitors

“Duty of care” is the phrase people reach for when they want to know whether someone was responsible for keeping them safe. It is a useful phrase, and it is also where most explanations stop — with a general statement that owners must take reasonable care, which is true, unarguable and almost impossible to do anything with.

Nevada is more specific than that in places, and the places are worth knowing. The Legislature has not written one duty that every property owner owes everyone. What it has done is impose particular duties on particular kinds of occupier, and where one of those applies, it says in plain words what has to be maintained and in what condition.

For a fall, two of them matter more than the rest.

Key Takeaways

• Nevada has no single statutory duty of care covering every property owner and every visitor.
• It writes specific duties for specific occupiers, and those are where an obligation is set out in terms.
• A landlord “shall at all times during the tenancy maintain the dwelling unit in a habitable condition.”
• That duty includes “floors, walls, ceilings, stairways and railings maintained in good repair.”
• It extends to buildings, grounds and “all other areas under the landlord’s control” being reasonably free from accumulations.
• A separate chapter requires fences or safeguards around excavations, kept in good repair and sufficient to guard against falls.
• Where no statute names the occupier, the obligation comes from general negligence law and is decided on the evidence.

The Question Behind the Phrase

When someone asks what duty of care a property owner owed them, they are usually asking something narrower and more practical: was this particular person responsible for this particular thing being in this particular state.

That is not answered by a general proposition about reasonable care. It is answered by identifying what relationship existed — landlord and tenant, occupier and visitor, contractor and site — and then asking whether Nevada has said anything specific about that relationship.

Often it has not, and the question is decided under the general law. But where it has, the statutory language is far more useful than any summary of it, because it names the things that have to be maintained.

Where Nevada Writes a Duty Down

The pattern across the statutes is consistent. Rather than a general premises provision, Nevada legislates for defined situations: a landlord letting a dwelling, a person who opens an excavation, an innkeeper and a guest. Each provision names who it binds and what it requires.

That has a practical consequence for anyone trying to work out where they stand. The first question is not “what is the duty of care” but “is there a statute that names this occupier” — because if there is, the obligation is written out rather than argued for.

A Landlord’s Duty Is Stated in Terms

The clearest example sits in Nevada’s residential landlord and tenant chapter.

NRS 118A.290(1) opens with a flat obligation: “the landlord shall at all times during the tenancy maintain the dwelling unit in a habitable condition.” The subsection then explains what that means by listing what a dwelling unit must not substantially lack, with a dwelling not habitable “if it violates provisions of housing or health codes concerning the health, safety, sanitation or fitness for habitation of the dwelling unit.”

NRS 118A.280 sets the same standard at the start of the arrangement, requiring the landlord to deliver possession “in a habitable condition as provided in this chapter.”

Neither of those is a general exhortation to be careful. They are obligations with a stated content, running for the whole of the tenancy.

What Paragraph (h) Actually Names

The item in that list most directly relevant to a fall is nine words long.

NRS 118A.290(1)(h) requires “floors, walls, ceilings, stairways and railings maintained in good repair.”

Floors. Stairways. Railings. A tenant who falls on a stair in disrepair, or because a railing was not maintained, is pointing at a specific statutory requirement naming the specific thing that failed. That is a materially stronger position than arguing from a general duty, because the obligation does not have to be established in the abstract — the statute states it.

Paragraph (i) adds “ventilating, air-conditioning and other facilities and appliances, including elevators, maintained in good repair if supplied or required to be supplied by the landlord,” which carries the same structure: a named thing, and a required condition.

Areas Under the Landlord’s Control

Falls frequently happen outside the unit itself — in a stairwell, a walkway, a laundry room, a parking area. Paragraph (g) addresses that directly.

It requires “building, grounds, appurtenances and all other areas under the landlord’s control at the time of the commencement of the tenancy in every part clean, sanitary and reasonably free from all accumulations of debris, filth, rubbish, garbage, rodents, insects and vermin.”

The operative words are “all other areas under the landlord’s control.” The obligation is not confined to the four walls of the unit; it follows control. Where a landlord controls a shared area, the paragraph reaches it.

The condition required there is phrased differently from the good-repair standard in paragraph (h), and the difference is deliberate — this paragraph is about accumulations rather than about structural repair. Which paragraph a particular hazard falls under is a question worth getting right, because they do not say the same thing.

A Duty Aimed Squarely at Falls

A second provision exists for a hazard defined by the fall it causes, and it sits in its own chapter.

NRS 455.010 requires any person, company or corporation who digs, sinks or excavates, or who is “the owner or owners, or in the possession under any lease or contract, of any shaft, excavation or hole,” to erect “good and substantial fences or other safeguards, and keep the same in good repair, around such works or shafts, sufficient to guard securely against danger to persons and animals from falling into such shafts or excavations.”

Three features are worth noting. The duty attaches to possession under a lease or contract as well as to ownership. It applies both “during the time they may be employed in digging, sinking or excavating” and “after they may have ceased work upon or abandoned the same.” And it is not satisfied by erecting something once — the safeguards must be kept “in good repair” and must be “sufficient to guard securely.”

NRS 455.040 provides for the consequences of failing to comply, including judgment for double the amount required to abate the condition and a fine fixed by that section.

Where No Statute Names the Occupier

Most falls do not happen in a rented dwelling or beside an excavation. They happen in shops, casinos, restaurants, offices and car parks, and for those there is no provision setting out what has to be maintained and in what condition.

In those settings there is no list to read from. What was required is established through the evidence about the place, the hazard and what was known about it, and the obligation is no weaker for being unwritten — it simply has to be built rather than cited.

Further material on premises claims in this state sits in the Nevada slip and fall guide.

Talk to a Nevada Premises Lawyer

Whether a statute names the occupier changes what has to be shown and how the argument runs. Settling that question depends on facts — who controlled the area, and under what arrangement — which are easier to pin down early than late.

Vaksman Khalfin, PC acts for injured people across Nevada from the firm’s Las Vegas office at 10161 Park Run Drive, Suite 150. The first consultation is free, and injury claims are handled on a contingency-fee basis: there is no upfront cost, attorney’s fees are owed only out of a recovery, and fees and case costs are separate items set out in the written agreement. Wider material sits in the Nevada personal injury guides.

Reviewed by Robert B. Vaksman, Partner, Vaksman Khalfin, PC (admitted in Nevada). Last reviewed: 10/30/2026