Immediate documentation after a premises slip-and-fall should capture: the exact time, date, and precise location within the property; a description of the condition that caused the fall (wet floor, ice, uneven surface, poor lighting); photographs of the exact location and the hazardous condition before anything is cleaned up, repaired, or changed; the injured person’s name, contact information, and description of claimed injury; whether medical attention was sought or offered; names and contact information of any witnesses; who discovered or reported the hazardous condition and when; what maintenance or inspection of the area had occurred before the incident; and what corrective action was taken after the incident. The maintenance record for the area — any inspections of that specific location, any prior reports of the same condition — should be preserved immediately as part of the incident record. In IncidentVault, the property incident form guides staff through each required element, ensuring complete documentation even under the stress of responding to an injured person.

Contractor incidents on property — a contractor’s employee injured while performing work on the property — require documentation that establishes the contractor relationship, the scope of work being performed, and the contractor’s insurance coverage at the time of the incident. Key documentation elements include: the contractor’s name and the contracting company, the scope of work being performed when the incident occurred, the contractor’s workers’ compensation carrier and policy number (which should be on file before any contractor begins work), the property manager’s own general liability carrier information, any safety instruction or orientation provided to the contractor, and whether the property had any safety requirements the contractor was following. This documentation is essential for establishing that the injured worker’s primary claim is against the contractor’s workers’ compensation carrier rather than the property owner’s general liability coverage — a distinction that can mean the difference between a managed cost and an unexpected large liability exposure.

IncidentVault tracks any property management incident through customizable types — including tenant slip-and-fall and common area injuries, visitor injuries at the property, maintenance worker workplace injuries, contractor incidents on property, tenant habitability complaints with liability potential, water damage and flooding incidents, fire and smoke incidents, mold discovery and remediation events, pest infestation incidents, parking structure and lot incidents, elevator and escalator incidents, swimming pool and amenity incidents, security incidents and criminal events, weather and casualty damage events, construction and renovation incidents, and any event involving damage to tenant or visitor property. The full configuration is customizable for commercial, residential, industrial, or mixed-use property portfolios.

Property owners who engage third-party property management companies have a visibility challenge: the management company controls the incident documentation, and the owner may have limited visibility into incident data that affects their insurance premiums and liability exposure. IncidentVault’s multi-level access architecture allows property owners to have read-only access to their property’s incident data while the management company retains operational control — giving owners the visibility into their asset’s risk profile that their ownership stake warrants. For institutional property owners (REITs, pension funds, family offices) with multiple properties managed by different third-party managers, IncidentVault can aggregate incident data across the portfolio even when each property is managed by a different operator — providing the portfolio-level risk visibility that asset management requires. Contact IncidentVault to discuss the specific multi-party access configuration appropriate for your ownership and management structure.