On the afternoon of a dry summer day in 2023, a fire broke out at a rental property on 8th Avenue in Clearwater Crossing, Alberta, ultimately destroying 3 adjacent homes before the local volunteer fire brigade could bring it under control. The residential property owner on 8th Avenue had leased the house to tenants for several years, maintaining varying degrees of involvement in the property's upkeep and condition. Winds of 35 km/h carried embers and flames across neighbouring lots with devastating efficiency, and by the time investigators arrived, the physical evidence that might have explained the fire's origin had been consumed entirely. The owners of the 3 adjacent homes now face the question of whether they can hold the rental property owner legally accountable, a question that begins with the foundational inquiry this lesson addresses: did that property owner owe them a duty of care in the first place?
The concept of duty of care sits at the threshold of every negligence claim in Alberta. Before a court will consider whether someone acted carelessly, before it examines whether that carelessness caused harm, it must first determine whether the defendant owed the plaintiff any legal obligation to take care at all. This is not a factual question about what happened. It is a legal question about the relationship between the parties and the kind of harm alleged. In the Clearwater Crossing fire, the residential property owner on 8th Avenue was not in direct contact with the neighbours whose homes burned. They may never have spoken. They may not know each other's names. Yet the law of negligence has long recognized that physical proximity can create legal proximity, and that owners of land owe obligations not only to those who enter their property but also to those who live beside it.