After coming across empty beer cans and bottles, I decided to erect keep out signs and barricade the entrance to the house as best I could. The house is not safe as there is broken glass from old windows and the stairs are rotten with woodworm.

‘Problem solved,’ I thought. I was very wrong.

I got a phone call in the middle of the night a few weeks ago from two sets of angry parents that their children had been assaulted and injured on my property. ​

It appears local kids thought it would be great fun to throw a party in my house, and things got rapidly out of hand.

These parents are now claiming I am liable for their children’s injuries.

Could this be right? Is there no-such thing as trespassing anymore?

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A It is not that there is no such thing as trespassing anymore but rather that you may owe a duty of care and be liable to people that go on to your property — including trespassers in certain circumstances.

A lot of people do not realise that trespassers may have a certain amount of rights.

As a registered owner of the property and as the person who has the authority to admit or exclude persons from the property, you would be deemed to be an occupier.

And an occupier has — under the 1995 Act, which applies to children as well as adults — a duty of care to three classes of people who may go onto their property: visitors, recreational users and trespassers.

The fact that they are trespassers does not of itself mean that you have no liability for them.

As a rule of thumb, a trespasser is a person who goes on to land without invitation of any kind and whose presence on the land is either unknown to the occupier or objected to.

As you didn’t know that the children were there that night and would obviously object to the children being on your property, I am of the view that they were trespassers within the meaning of the Act.

As an occupier, you have no liability to trespassers who go onto your property for the purposes of committing an offence.

It is not clear from the information provided whether these children went onto your property for the purposes of committing an offence. I am not sure exactly what you mean by “drinking sessions and possibly worse”. ​

Did they break into the house?

If the children had not gone onto your property for the purposes of committing an offence, then you are under a duty of care not to intentionally injure them or be reckless about their safety.

You obviously did not intentionally injure anyone, but the ‘reckless’ part is a more grey area and each case turns on its own facts.

I do not believe you were reckless about the safety of the trespassers in this case.

It is evident that you were aware that the old house posed a danger as a result of the broken glass and the woodworm.

It is also evident that you were aware that it was likely that people were going on to the premises.

These are factors that a court would take into consideration when considering if you were reckless about the safety of the children.

However, a very important factor is that you took immediate action and secured the premises and did the best you could to keep out trespassers.

A court would take into account what a reasonable person would do in the circumstances to secure a property.

You also erected signage at the entrance warning people not to go onto the property, although it would be better if the signs said ‘Dangerous Building. Do not Enter’ or something to that effect, rather than just ‘keep out’.

A court would also likely take into account the care that the trespassers took for their own safety. In this case the trespassers were children, which may mean that they have a lesser duty of care for their own safety than an adult would have.

I believe that you took the precautions that a reasonable person would take to prevent people going on to your property and suffering injuries as a result.

Taking into account all the circumstances of your case, I am of the opinion that is very unlikely that these people would succeed in any personal injuries claim they might take against you.

However, they may go ahead and pursue a claim against you in any event. If you receive any correspondence from solicitors, you should notify your insurance company immediately and consult your own solicitor.

It is also advisable to contact the Gardaí if there are trespassers on you land as it may be a criminal offence.

By way of general advice, you should also review your farm safety plan, identify hazards on the farm and review or erect new signage if necessary.

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Mary Frances Fahy is a solicitor and tax consultant and the principal of Fahy Neilan Solicitors, Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon