What Do you Know about Umbrella Insurance?

Posted by on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 at 9:29pm.

Did you know that you stand the risk of being sued as a homeowner if somebody gets injured on your property? An accident can happen to someone visiting you or to someone you have hired to mow your lawn or fix your light. A visiting friend may trip and fall on the stairs, injuring or breaking a leg.

A property owner stands the risk of being held legally liable for an accident happening on his own property. The liability coverage offered by standard homeowner’s insurance can be of use but only to an extent. It may not be enough to cover you against major claims.

Umbrella insurance offers you additional coverage should you exhaust your homeowner’s insurance, leaving you exposed to the possibility of losing your property. Here are some situations that can lead to a lawsuit against a homeowner.

Accident

You can be held liable if somebody is injured while on your property. This can happen regardless of whether the accident was your fault or not. You can also be held liable if your pet injures someone or a member of your family causes an accident.

Known Defects

You are more likely to face a lawsuit if an accident occurs on your property due to a defect that is known to you. An example of that is an accident caused by a damaged staircase in your home.

Other Factors

You may be faced with a lawsuit due to other issues like privacy invasion, slander, character assassination, libel, malicious prosecution and so on. All these may look unrelated to homeownership but if you are faced with any of them, you could easily lose your home in an unexpected lawsuit.

Liability insurance can come in very handy should you be faced with an unexpected lawsuit. It’s definitely something to think about and it wouldn’t hurt to get a quote on this type of insurance – just in case.

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