You came here for a vacation and left with an injury, a stack of medical paperwork, and a host who has stopped answering messages. That is not a fair trade, and you should not have to sort it out alone.
Felice Trial Attorneys represents guests injured at Airbnb, Vrbo, and other short-term rental properties throughout Orlando, Kissimmee, Lake Buena Vista, and the surrounding Central Florida resort corridor. We handle pool and drowning cases, falls from balconies and stairs, defective equipment injuries, and assaults at unsecured rental homes.
We take these cases on a contingency fee, so our fee comes from the recovery at the end rather than from you now.
Call (561) 444-8822 for a free case review. Someone is available 24 hours a day.
Do You Have a Case if You Were Hurt at an Orlando Vacation Rental?
If a hazard at the property caused your injury and the owner or manager knew about it, or should have known about it, you may have a claim. Florida law requires whoever possesses and controls a property to keep it reasonably safe for paying guests and to warn about dangers a guest would not notice on their own. A short-term rental gets no exemption from that rule.
What defeats these cases is not usually the law. It is time. Rental properties turn over every few days, and the loose stair tread, the broken gate latch, or the missing drain cover gets quietly fixed before anyone photographs it. Getting a lawyer involved while the evidence still exists is the difference between a provable claim and a story.
Orlando Rental Injuries We Handle
The Orlando and Kissimmee rental market is dominated by large private homes marketed on their amenities, which is exactly why the injuries here look different from a hotel case.
Pool, spa, and hot tub injuries
These are the cases we see most, and the most serious. Unlatched or missing pool gates, absent barriers, broken or non-compliant drain covers, missing depth markings, unlit pool decks at night, and hot tubs left at unsafe temperatures. Drownings and near drownings involving children happen in seconds and often in properties advertised as family friendly.
Balcony, stair, and railing failures
Multi-level rental homes and townhome-style units near Lake Buena Vista frequently carry deferred maintenance. A railing that pulls free, a rotted deck board, or an unlit exterior stair produces catastrophic injuries at low height.
Grills, fire pits, and defective appliances
Propane grills placed under a screened enclosure, gas lines never inspected, space heaters, and unmaintained appliances cause burn injuries and carbon monoxide exposure. Missing or dead smoke and carbon monoxide detectors turn a manageable event into a fatal one.
Assaults at unsecured rental properties
Properties with broken locks, non-functioning gates, no exterior lighting, or a documented history of incidents create foreseeable risk. Those claims proceed as negligent security cases and require a different evidentiary approach than a fall claim.
Who Is Legally Responsible, the Host, the Platform, or the Property Manager?
In most Orlando cases we pursue the host and the property management company. The booking platform is a narrower target, because its terms send disputes with the company to private arbitration.
What is distinctive about this market is the second defendant. Most Orlando and Kissimmee rentals are investment properties owned from out of area, with a management company doing the actual work of turnovers, pool service, and repair tickets.
That company usually holds the maintenance history, the complaint log, and its own commercial insurance. It is also the defendant most often missed by someone handling a claim alone, so it is where we look first.
Our explainer on whether can you sue Airbnb in Florida covers the platform question in depth.
| Party | Typical role in an Orlando rental claim | Insurance usually involved |
| Property owner or host | Duty to maintain and warn | Platform host liability program, landlord or short-term rental policy |
| Property management company | Inspections, repairs, vendor scheduling | Commercial general liability |
| Pool or maintenance vendor | Serviced the equipment that failed | Contractor liability policy |
| Booking platform | Listing and payment | Platform program, subject to arbitration terms |
If you are still in Florida or just got home, call (561) 444-8822 now. Evidence at a rental property does not stay in place for long.
How Does Florida's Pool Safety Law Apply to a Rental Home?
Florida's Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act requires new residential pools to carry at least one approved safety feature, and it sets specific standards for any barrier used to satisfy that requirement. It does not require owners of older pools to retrofit, which is a distinction that gets misreported constantly.
Under Fla. Stat. § 515.29, a qualifying barrier must stand at least four feet high on the outside, must have no gaps or footholds a young child could crawl under, squeeze through, or climb over, and must have gates that open outward, self-close, and self-latch with the release out of a child's reach.
Fla. Stat. § 515.27 lists the alternatives an owner may use instead, including approved safety covers, door exit alarms, self-closing door hardware, and pool alarms meeting the ASTM standard.
Why this matters in a claim: a rental home whose barrier or alarm fails those standards, or whose gate latch was broken at the time of the incident, gives us a concrete measure for the owner's conduct.
Local ordinances in Orange and Osceola counties can be stricter. Florida also requires most vacation rentals to hold a state license under Fla. Stat. § 509.241, with § 509.242 defining what counts as one.
Operating without a license does not create automatic liability, but it tells us a great deal about how the property was run. The federal Pool Safely program is a useful reference on drain and barrier standards.
What Should You Do in the First 72 Hours?
Photograph the hazard before anyone touches it, get medical care the same day, and report the injury through the platform in writing. Those three actions preserve the case. Everything else can wait.
In more detail, and in order:
- Get evaluated. Emergency room or urgent care the same day, even if you feel functional. Head, neck, and internal injuries commonly present hours later.
- Photograph the condition. Close-ups of the defect and wide shots showing the layout, lighting, and any warning signage that was or was not there.
- Capture the listing. Screenshot the entire listing, the amenity claims, the house rules, and every review that mentions the same problem. Listings get edited after incidents.
- Report it in writing. Through the platform and separately to the host. Keep it short and factual. Do not speculate about what caused it or say you are fine.
- Ask for the incident report. If law enforcement, fire rescue, or EMS responded, note the agency and the report number.
- Identify the management company. The name is usually on the welcome binder, the lockbox instructions, or the pool service placard.
- Do not give a recorded statement. Not to the host, not to the platform, and not to any insurer, until you have spoken with a lawyer.
How Long Do You Have to File an Orlando Rental Injury Claim?
Two years for most injury claims, and two years for a death claim. Florida cut the negligence deadline from four years to two in 2023, so any article still telling you four years is describing repealed law. The wrongful death deadline has been two years for far longer.
| Type of claim | Florida deadline | Statute |
| Premises liability injury | 2 years from the injury | § 95.11(5)(a) |
| Wrongful death | 2 years from the date of death | § 95.11(5)(e) |
Two other Florida rules shape the outcome. Fla. Stat. § 768.81 reduces your recovery by whatever share of fault gets assigned to you and eliminates it entirely above 50 percent, which is why the defense works so hard on the "you weren't watching" theory.
Fla. Stat. § 768.0755 also sets a specific notice standard for slip and fall claims in business establishments. That is why we move fast to obtain maintenance logs and prior complaints.
Can You Handle My Case if I Live in Another State?
Yes, and most of our vacation rental clients do. A Florida rental injury claim is filed where the property sits, which for Orlando-area rentals means the Ninth Judicial Circuit covering Orange and Osceola counties. You do not need a lawyer in your home state and you do not need to move your case.
You also do not need to fly back repeatedly. We handle the investigation, the property inspection, the records requests, and the insurance communication from here.
Documents get signed electronically, meetings happen by video, and you can keep treating with your own doctors at home while we gather the records. Clients typically travel to Florida only if a case reaches deposition or trial, which is a small fraction of them, and we tell you well in advance.
Premises claims are also more portable than collision cases, because they do not hinge on a local police investigation.
Fatal Pool Accidents and Wrongful Death Claims
If a family member died at a rental property, Florida's wrongful death act governs who may recover and for what, and the deadline is two years from the date of death.
Drowning cases require a different investigation. Barrier compliance, gate function, drain and suction equipment, what the listing represented about supervision, the response timeline, and whether rescue equipment was present all get examined, and much of it depends on physical measurements taken before repairs. Our Florida wrongful death claims team handles that work directly, and survivors with brain injury from a near drowning are handled through our catastrophic injury practice.
Why Families Choose Felice Trial Attorneys
We are a trial firm, not a volume settlement operation. Cases get prepared as though a jury will hear them, because that is what changes how an insurer values a file.
You also speak with your lawyer, not a case manager or a rotating queue. That is what our clients raise most often, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to. Our attorneys and consultants, including Timothy C. Felice, Dorothy Clay Sims, E. Paul Dozois, and Dr. Oregon Hunter, bring both trial and medical analysis to serious injury claims. Their backgrounds are on our team page.
Other Florida Rental Markets We Serve
Central Florida is not the only place this happens. We also handle Palm Beach vacation rental injuries, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Jupiter, and the rest of Palm Beach County, from the same office.
Orlando Vacation Rental Injury Questions
What does it cost to have you review my case?
Nothing. The consultation is free, and we work on a contingency fee, which means our fee comes out of the recovery at the end of the case rather than from you upfront.
I already spoke to the platform's insurance company. Did I ruin my claim?
Almost certainly not. It does mean we need to know exactly what was said and get copies of anything you signed. Stop communicating with them directly and let us take it from there.
Can you get the property inspected before the next guest checks in?
Often, and it is one of the first things we try to do. An inspection or a formal preservation demand sent to the owner and the management company can lock down the pool gate, the railing, or the stair before it gets repaired and photographed over.
No police came and there is no report. Is that a problem?
It is a hurdle, not a barrier. Most premises cases are built from photographs, listing records, maintenance and complaint history, witness accounts, and medical records rather than from a law enforcement report.
Will my case have to go to trial?
Most do not. We prepare every case as though it will, because that preparation is what produces a fair result at mediation. If trial is the right call, we will tell you why and what it involves.
Talk to an Orlando Vacation Rental Injury Lawyer Today
Every day that passes, the property gets cleaned, repaired, relisted, and rebooked. The gate gets fixed. The photos get replaced. Waiting costs you evidence you cannot get back.
Felice Trial Attorneys will review what happened, tell you plainly whether we think you have a claim, and take it from there if you want us to.
Call (561) 444-8822 for a free case review, or contact us online. Our office is at 3 Harvard Circle, West Palm Beach, FL 33409, and we serve injured guests throughout Orlando, Kissimmee, Lake Buena Vista, and Central Florida. Someone is available 24 hours a day.
This page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this page or contacting Felice Trial Attorneys does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Case result figures reflect gross recoveries across multiple matters and do not reflect the net amount received by any individual client after fees and costs. Florida statutes, deadlines, insurance requirements, and procedures referenced here are subject to change, and you should consult a licensed Florida attorney about the specific facts of your situation. Florida's statute of limitations is strict, and missing it may bar your recovery.