Legal advice on liability of self-employed persons

Questioner

A self-employed person was working in our house. He had warned us that he had to be in the crawl space. He had no equipment with him to secure the open hatch. One of us fell into the open hole - miraculously without any damage. (71 years old!) Could have been a disaster. Are there no legal requirements to secure such an open hatch by stretching tape or something similar around the door?

Lawyer

Fortunately, you did not sustain any damage during the fall. There are legal regulations that state that during working hours, care must be taken to prevent damage or endangerment as much as possible. This means that measures must be taken (tape, barricade, etc.). For more information or further assistance, you can contact me directly and free of charge.

Questioner

There was no barrier, the door 'above' the crawl hatch was closed, but not locked, and the ZZP was gone for a moment, without saying where or for how long. So it was unnecessary for the hatch to be open, pure laziness.

Lawyer

That is indeed careless and you could have held the ZZP'er liable for this in the event of damage. Fortunately, everything went well for you.