The Role of Homeowner’s Insurance in a Personal Injury Claim

Your homeowner’s policy may have several endorsements including personal injury. What does personal injury cover though?

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You probably assume this coverage will cover you should someone slip and fall on your property. That’s liability insurance. This insurance covers injuries that happen to others while on your property. It protects you against things like slips and falls, dog bites, or your kid throwing a golf ball through your neighbor’s window.

There’s another type of personal injury you may not think about when buying your homeowner’s insurance, though. Keep reading to learn if you should give your homeowner’s insurance policy a once over.

The Other Type of Personal Injury

You know you are liable if someone gets hurt on your property. You’ll likely have to pay their medical bills and worse yet, they may even take you to court. Your homeowner’s insurance policy should cover that for you. They may even hire a lawyer and handle the court costs for you – that’s what you pay those premiums for. You hope you never have to use them, but it can happen.

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There are also personal injury issues – not the physical type. In fact, the injury won’t even occur at your home. A personal injury endorsement covers things like:

• False arrest
• Wrongful eviction
• Violation of privacy
• Slander

If you are sued for any of these issues, your homeowners insurance may help you with the costs. Again, your policy should also help you cover the court and lawyer fees that come along with this type of lawsuit.

You should know that your insurance policy will not cover you if any of the above acts occur, yet they are intentional. For example, if you intentionally slam someone online on your social media platform because you are upset with him or her and they sue you for defamation, your insurance probably won’t cover you. It has to be something that was innocent and not planned.

For example, let’s say you have a big party and cook for everyone. The next day you find out that you gave everyone food poisoning because the eggs you used were bad. You cannot possibly cover the medical bills of every person, which is why you have insurance to help you cover the costs and decrease the amount of money that has to come out of your pocket.

Do All Policies Have Personal Injury Coverage?

Personal injury coverage is not a required part of homeowner’s insurance, but generally, you will see liability insurance as a part of every policy. Unless you specifically ask to have it removed, you should see it on your policy.

What you won’t automatically see is the additional personal injury coverage for the uncommon events, such as false arrest or slander. It generally doesn’t cost very much to add this endorsement though and it can protect you against a very expensive lawsuit down the road. Paying just a few extra dollars a month could save you thousands of dollars down the road should something happen.

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