Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Personal Injury?

Finding the right insurance policies can be quite a challenge. You want to balance cost savings but also maintain a decent amount of coverage for any possible damage done to your home, either on purpose or by accident. However, the best policies available are those that have you covered in case of a personal injury at your property.

Staying covered in case you have friends over for a party and someone gets hurt is a piece of cake as long as you have personal liability insurance, which comes in handy with saving on certain injuries. However, this option keeps certain people covered under particular situations.

Whether you’re looking for homeowners insurance in New Jersey, or in a different state, this guide aims to inform you on how to find a policy that can cover personal injuries.

Who is covered and how

Before you decide to get coverage that includes personal injuries, you should know first who this coverage focuses on so that you don’t end up paying for something when you’re covered by insurance. Personal liability insurance only applies to people who visit your home. This means that your friends, relatives, or other guests who come over and get hurt are covered, but you and your immediate family who lives with you will need to rely on your own health insurance.

Whether or not a person is covered depends on the nature of the incident. Some policies don’t require a guest to be assaulted for you to have coverage, while others provide more coverage to those who are hurt because of negligence on the part of the homeowner. This means that someone who trips down the stairs and breaks their ankle can be covered under your policy, which helps you avoid having to assist in paying their medical bills.

Personal liability focuses on guests, specifically those who were invited over by the homeowner. Letter carriers, meter readers, and similar individuals are not covered because their presence on the property is implicitly consented to due to the nature of their professions.

Homeowners’ responsibilities

When it comes to homeowners insurance covering personal injuries, homeowners are required to repair issues, or at least warn guests of issues with the property that can potentially cause an injury. This includes fixing broken steps, installing a guardrail, or putting up signs in certain areas warning of specific conditions.

However, if you’re a homeowner, you won’t have to warn guests of any issues that you aren’t aware of. For instance, there may be issues with the piping that were fixed by the required professionals but can lead to respiratory issues, as well as stairs that may have been damaged by a recent rental of your property that you are unaware of. Coverage applies to assaults, as well. If the homeowner doesn’t see assault as a foreseeable risk when having a guest stay over, in the instance of an attack, the policy will cover the victim.

Nature

Weather can be a common cause of a personal injury on your property, especially during certain seasons. Be it heavy rain storms during the summer or blizzards during the winter, guests coming over your home can slip, fall, and suffer a broken bone or concussion. However, this policy only applies if the water or ice accumulated there naturally.

However, homeowners can enjoy coverage of personal injury as long as the snow or water the guest slipped on was placed there unnaturally, such as you shoveling it or sweeping it to the driveway or sidewalk.

Dog bites

Homeowners with dogs, cats, and other pets can be covered for personal injury if a guest is attacked by the animal. In this case, negligence on the owner’s part does not have to be proven, and the guest didn’t have to have provoked the dog in order for the coverage to work.

However, if you’re new to the relationship between homeowner’s insurance and personal injuries and want to be sure that your insurance covers you in the case of a pet attack, then be sure to contact New Jersey attorneys, or a local attorney, to get all of the necessary information.

Intoxicated guests

Personal injuries also apply to homeowners insurance when it comes to guests getting intoxicated at your property. If you have people over and serve them drinks, you might be liable for any injuries suffered by them and other people if they drive while drunk. This applies to serving drinks to minors and those who are visibly intoxicated.

However, homeowners are covered if the guests bring their own alcohol over, or if the other guests confirm that the person was not showing signs of intoxication when they left the property.

Keep this guide in mind so that you can get the most out of personal injury coverage with your homeowner’s insurance.

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