Camping Liability: Free Legal Advice

Questioner

At a campsite in the Netherlands my 5 year old daughter burned herself on the hot water tap. The hot water tap was a tap that was freely accessible on the outside of the private sanitary facilities at our place. The burn was a second degree burn, we had to end our holiday early. We measured the temperature of the hot water tap, after a few seconds it was 84 degrees! In our opinion much too hot. The campsite owner does not acknowledge that the tap is too hot. What rules apply to a campsite owner regarding the safety of the guests? Can we hold the owner liable for the damage suffered?

Lawyer

This concerns a company that professionally offers a recreational environment. There is case law on this type of liability. HR 27 May 1988, ECLI:NL:HR:1988:AD0344: 'The person who is responsible for a site acts contrary to what is appropriate in social intercourse according to unwritten law, if, while he must expect that the public will enter this site and knows that a danger such as the one in question is present on this site that is not always visible to the public, and that is unknown to the public, he nevertheless fails to take measures such as a prohibition on entering the site or a warning of this danger.' In this case, the question is whether the campsite should have taken into account the possibility that a camping guest would feel the water from the hot tap, taking into account that this is also a tap that is accessible to children (cf. Court of 's-Hertogenbosch 21 October 2014, ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2014:4356). Since a boiler is set to temperature, the campsite must be expected to be aware of the high water temperature. Since it is also aware of the fact that there are children among the guests and it is a common knowledge that people can come into contact with water from the tap when using it, it seems to me that the campsite should at least have warned about this or raised the tap so that children cannot reach the tap in any case (I base this on the Cellar Hatch criteria of HR 5 November 1965, LJN AB7079, NJ 1966/136). All in all I would conclude that the campsite can be held liable for the damage suffered. I would advise you to hire a lawyer.

Lawyer

The owner of the holiday home must ensure the soundness of the facilities and that is not the case in your case. As such, he can be held accountable for the negligence that has been caused. If desired, you may contact me directly.