What Is Personal Liability?
As an experienced insurance company, a question we commonly hear is, “What is personal liability?” The simple answer is it’s your legal responsibility to pay for damages or injuries that you or your family caused to someone else.
This insurance helps protect you if:
- Someone who isn’t a resident of your household is injured while on your property.
- You’re found liable for damaging someone else’s property.
- You’re found responsible for injuring someone or damaging their property while you are away from your home.
How to Determine Your Personal Liability Coverage Limits
At The Hartford, we offer personal liability coverage as a standard addition to our homeowners policies. In case of a covered loss, this personal liability coverage helps protect you against damages, such as:
- Medical expenses
- Lost income
- Pain and suffering
- Legal expenses
- Court costs
What Does Personal Liability Insurance Cover?
Your personal liability coverage can help protect you in the following ways, up to your policy limits:
Medical bills for bodily injury to an individual: Personal liability insurance coverage can help cover costs for medical bills that result from a visitor's injury at your home. This helps you avoid having to pay for them out of pocket. Keep in mind that you can be held liable for medical expenses for injuries that result from your own negligence. For instance, if you fail to fix a broken stair in your home. In this case, your personal liability insurance can help if the injured visitor has health benefits.
Lost wages: If a visitor gets injured on your property and cannot return to work, your personal liability insurance can help cover the cost of their lost wages. For example, if your friend is a construction worker, and he slips and breaks his leg in your home, your personal liability coverage can help cover the costs associated with his lost wages while he can’t work.
Pain and suffering: If someone gets hurt on your property and you are found negligent, you could be legally responsible for their pain and suffering. Your home insurance personal liability coverage can help cover the cost of the settlement against you.
Legal costs: If you're sued following an accident on your property, you will likely need a lawyer. Regardless of whether you’re found responsible for damages or not, your personal liability insurance can help cover the costs of your legal fees.
Death benefits: If someone dies in your home, your personal liability policy can help cover any death benefits for their family members.
What Isn’t Covered by Your Personal Liability Insurance?
While primary home and renters insurance can help cover specific personal liability claims, they don’t always cover all of them. Claims that may not be included in your primary home and renters insurance coverage include:
- Malpractice lawsuits
- Liability resulting from an automobile accident
- Property damage or bodily injury caused intentionally by you or a family member living in your home
- Damages or injuries experienced by you or family members in your home
- Business pursuits or claims related to your profession, such as workers' compensation claims
You should carefully review your home and renters insurance policy to better understand what is and isn’t covered by your personal liability coverage. To determine
how much homeowners insurance coverage you need, or to find out if you have personal liability coverage for your home, contact us at
888-413-8970 or get your
homeowners insurance quote online. We can help you choose the policy that is right for you and your home.
Last Updated: November 21, 2024
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