Landlord's Duty To The Tenant
Your rights as a tenant are, for the most part, governed by the written lease that you signed. Most jurisdictions also have a landlord/tenant act that may apply to your particular lease depending on how many rental units the landlord has. If there is a conflict between the lease and the landlord/tenant statute that governs your locality, then the law is going to prevail over the contract.
However, in general, your rights are most clearly defined by the lease that you signed.
If you did not sign a written lease, then you may be governed simply by whatever the oral terms were that were agreed to. The problem with an oral contract is it sometimes becomes a subject of dispute as to what the terms of that agreement were.
In regards to personal injury issues a landlord owes you as a tenant a duty of reasonable care to make the premises reasonably safe.If the landlord violates that duty then the landlod may be liable for resulting injury.This duty to exercise reasonable care may come in the form of cleaning the walkways and stairs, removing ice and snow and providing reasonable security.
See Brien Roches book Law 101 published by Sphinx Publishing for more information on this subject.
