One of the trickiest areas of home insurance for many people to navigate can be the liability component. These days, it seems as if everyone is suing someone else – if something happens to someone, the first thing they do is look for someone to blame. You do need to ensure that you have adequate liability coverage with your home insurance, but more importantly, you need to know how to minimize your risks.
Some of the more common liability issues people can face come from trouble with pets – particularly dogs – swimming pools and garden water features, unattended play houses, swings and other backyard equipment, and possibly even yard work in progress that means tools lying around.
The key is supervision of your RI property. However, we’re not always home to watch what goes on. Access to your private property needs to be something of which you have
control. Sturdy fencing, solid gates and good locks are vital if you are to be reasonably sure that people can’t get in when you’re not home. Regardless of whether you’re home or not, if someone is inured on your property, you could be held liable – whether they should be there or not
Check the level of the liability component of your homeowners’ insurance. For those of you with dogs, swimming pools or other things that could constitute additional risk, it may be
wise to consider raising the amount of coverage you have, to provide yourself with some extra financial protection. However, look at keeping access to your property to those you invite, and protect yourself, and your property with good fencing.