In Texas, a property owner can be liable for a third party’s criminal attack when that crime was foreseeable and the owner failed to use ordinary care to protect people lawfully on the property. Foreseeability is proven mainly with prior crimes on or near the property: how recent, frequent, similar, close, and publicized they were.
What an Inadequate Security Claim Actually Is
Inadequate security, also called negligent security, is a premises liability claim. You are not suing the person who attacked you. You are suing the owner, landlord, or management company of the property where it happened for failing to take reasonable precautions against a danger it already knew, or should have knownabout.
Texas law does not make a property owner the guarantor of your safety. There is generally no duty to protect you from the criminal acts of strangers. The duty arises only when that kind of crime was foreseeable, and how much the owner had to do scales with how foreseeable it was.
These claims do not depend on a criminal case. No conviction is required. Charges may never be filed and the attacker may never be identified, and the civil claim against the property owner can still go forward on its own proof.
Foreseeability Is the Fight That Decides Most Cases
Foreseeability turns on what the owner knew or should have known before the attack, not on how severe the attack turned out to be. Texas courts weigh a group of factors, often called the Timberwalk factors after the Texas Supreme Court decision that set them out:
- Proximity: did the earlier crimes happen on this property, next door, or blocks away?
- Recency: how close in time were they to your attack?
- Frequency: how often were they happening?
- Similarity: were they violent crimes against people, or property crimrd such as car break-ins and shoplifting?
- Publicity: did the owner actually know, through police reports, calls for service, tenant complaints, media coverage, or its own incident logs?
Apartments, Hotels, Bars and Parking Garages
No single factor controls and the factors are weighed together. A cluster of recent, similar, violent crimes at the same address is the strongest showing. One burglary two years earlier a few blocks away usually is not.
In apartment complexes, the recurring facts are access gates that stayed broken or propped open for months, exterior lighting that went dark, locks and door hardware that were never repaired after work orders, and courtesy patrols that were advertised in the lease and then quietly cut.
In hotels and motels, the issues are key control, who can reach an interior corridor, and whether staff responded to reports. In bars and nightclubs, they are crowd control, staffing at closing time, and fights that employees watched escalate. In parking garages and lots, they are lighting, camera coverage, ground-level access, and whether anyone was posted for security purposes
What matters is the gap between the risk the owner knew about and the precautions it chose. A complex that installed a gate because of a string of assaults and then left it broken for a year stands very differently from one that never faced a known risk.
What You Have to Prove, and Why H-E-B v. Peterson Matters
The claim is built on the standard premises framework. As a lawful visitor you generally must show the owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition, that it posed an unreasonable risk of harm, that the owner failed to use reasonable care to reduce or eliminate it, and that the failure proximately caused your injuries, under Keetch v. Kroger (Tex. 1992).
In H-E-B, LP v. Peterson (Tex. 2026), the Texas Supreme Court reaffirmed that duration evidence is essential: absent temporal evidence of how long the danger existed, the law does not charge a premises owner with constructive notice. Peterson is a slip-and-fall case, but it tightens the notice element for premises claims generally.
In a security case, the time evidence is the history itself. When did the prior incidents happen? How long had the lighting been out.? How many months had the gate been broken.? How long ago was the owner warned.? Courts want timeframes, not adjectives.
The Evidence Disappears Quickly
Most of the proof in these cases sits in someone else’s records, and much of it is overwritten or discarded on a routine schedule. Surveillance systems commonly loop within days or weeks. A written preservation demand sent early is often the difference between a provable case and a swearing match.
- Surveillance video from the property and from neighboring businesses
- Police calls-for-service history and offense reports for the address
- Work orders, maintenance logs, and vendor invoices for gates, locks, and lighting
- Prior tenant or guest complaints, emails, and management responses
- Security contracts, post orders, guard shift logs, and staffing schedules
- Leasing brochures, websites, and lease terms describing security features
Deadlines, Shared Fault, and Getting the File Started
The deadline is two years from the incident under CPRC section 16.003, and two years from the date of death in a wrongful death case. A minor’s claim is tolled during minority, generally until age 20, under CPRC section 16.001. Two years sounds long until you try to recover video that was overwritten in week three.
Expect a fault fight. Under Texas comparative responsibility you recover only if you are 50% or less at fault, and your award is reduced by your share (CPRC sections 33.001 and 33.012). Defendants also commonly designate the criminal attacker as a responsible third party, generally at least 60 days before trial (CPRC section 33.004), which puts a share of the blame on someone who will never pay. A defendant is jointly liable only if its share exceeds 50% (CPRC section 33.013).
There is no cap on non-economic damages in an ordinary negligence case, so the value of these claims is driven by the injuries and the proof, not by a statutory ceiling. Consultations are free at the Jim Ross Law Group which can be reached at 817-275-4100, and there is no fee unless we win.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue an apartment complex if I was attacked in the parking lot?
You can if the attack was foreseeable and the complex failed to take reasonable precautions. The question a Texas court asks is what the complex knew before that night such as prior violent crimes at the address, tenant complaints, broken gates, dark parking areas. A single unforeseeable attack, with no history behind it, will usually not support a claim.
Do I have to know who attacked me to file a claim?
No. An inadequate security claim is against the property owner or manager, not the attacker. Police may never identify the person who hurt you, and no criminal conviction is required. The civil case turns on what the owner knew or should have known about the risk and what it did about it.,
The police report says there had never been trouble at that property. Does that end my case?
Not necessarily. Offense reports are only one source. Calls for service, incident logs kept by management, tenant complaint emails, security guard shift reports, and crimes at immediately adjacent properties can all bear on foreseeability. A records request often shows a history that a single report does not, which is why these cases start with document preservation.
My lease says the landlord provides no security. Does that clause protect them?
A disclaimer in a lease does not automatically end the claim. A landlord’s duty in Texas comes from foreseeability and ordinary care, not only from what the lease promises or does not promise, and marketing that advertised gates or patrols can cut the other way. Whether a specific contract clause is enforceable against you is a legal question which a lawyer has to review against your actual lease.
I was visiting a friend, not a tenant. Does that change anything?
It can change the legal category you fall into, which affects the duty owed to you. Tenants and their invited guests are usually treated as lawful visitors on the common areas. Trespassers are owed far less. The analysis is fact-specific, so tell your lawyer exactly why you were on the property and who invited you.
Is a hotel responsible if a guest is assaulted inside a room?
It depends on how the attacker got in and what the hotel knew or should have known. Key control failures, doors that did not latch, a master key given out, or an assailant who had already been reported to the front desk are some of the scenarios which can create liability. A random crime at a property with no relevant history and functioning security is a more difficult claim.
How long do I have to bring an inadequate security case in Texas?
Two years from the date of the attack under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. A child’s claim is generally tolled until age 20. Practically, the useful window is much shorter, because surveillance video and staffing records often disappear within weeks which is an important reason to send a spoliation letter.
The property had cameras, but they were not recording. Does that help?
It can help twice. Non-working cameras can be evidence that security measures were inadequate, and the absence of footage that should have existed can raise a preservation issue depending on when the owner knew a claim was coming. Either way, it makes the surrounding records, including maintenance logs and vendor invoices, more important.
This page is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different and past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Jim Ross Law Group, P.C., 2201 E Lamar Blvd #110, Arlington, TX 76006.