If you own rural land where animals are plentiful, there may be people who wish to use your land for hunting. You may invite them on your property or they could sneak onto it illegally. One concern you may have is the liability you have for any accidents these hunters, invited or not, may have while on your land.
According to the Code of Virginia, in general, you are not liable for any injuries hunters have when on your property. However, there are some more details to understand about your liability.
General duty
The law says you have no duty to make your land safe for hunting. This includes no requirement to post warnings or give notice of any possible hazards on the property. These things apply whether you invited the hunters on your land or not.
When giving permission to hunt to someone, that person should not assume you are saying the land is safe or owe them any duty of care or responsibility for anything that may happen when on your land.
Exception
There is an exception to the general rule about your liability. You are responsible for accidents and injuries if you were negligent or intentional in causing them harm. In addition, you may have some liability if you charge a fee for the use of the land. In addition, if you are throwing an event of some type that you organized or sponsored, then you do maintain liability for the safety of the guests attending the event.
You should try to keep your land safe, but you are not responsible for others who may come onto your land. If they suffer an injury that is no fault of yours, then you are not responsible in a legal way.
