Your Swimming Pool Might Get You Sued | Beacon Point Insurance

Setting up a backyard swimming pool can make those hot summertime’s a lot more enjoyable and relaxing, however could it get you into a great deal of financial difficulty too? The short answer is: yes.

If you’re not properly covered, and somebody gets hurt in your pool, you are welcoming claims. I understand what you’re thinking: my friends and family are the only ones who use my pool… they’re not going to sue me if anything occurs.

Think again.

It’s not necessarily that people like to sue and even wish to. They may need to, and sometimes they don’t have a choice. With the high costs of medical expenses today, a household that suffers a major injury (or– god forbid– a death) probably can’t afford not to take legal action against. And if a person was hurt at your pool in your yard, guess who’s technically at fault?

If someone gets hurt, do not be amazed by a lawsuit: expect it. And don’t think you can enjoy the swimming pool every minute to ensure nothing occurs. Accidents will happen no matter how relentless you are in attempting to prevent them. Dangers of accidents are statistically shown to be very high around backyard pools and Jacuzzis.

This isn’t to state, you ought to put dirt into your pool, plant a nice safe flower bed, and post “keep out of the backyard” indications all over your yard. You just need to make certain you are sufficiently covered when it comes to insurance.

Okay, you’re sold. Now how do you make sure you’re covered?

If you own a pool or hot tub, you must bring really high liability insurance, i.e. in the variety of a million dollars or more.

This can be difficult given that many property owner’s insurance policies restrict the optimum direct exposure of the insurance company to $100,000. Sometimes you can get this raised to $500,000 however getting covered beyond that, from your homeowner’s insurance alone, will likely prove challenging.

This is why you want to check out an umbrella insurance policy. This is a separate liability policy in addition to your homeowner’s protection. It usually picks up where your homeowners insurance coverage ends, and you can get protection in multiples of one million dollars.

The cost for this additional protection is generally very little, in the neighborhood of $200-400 annually. This may appear expensive, however considering the millions of dollars of coverage it affords you, it’s not really that much, specifically if you entertain and have a Jacuzzi or pool.

One last thing to note is that you may have to buy all your insurance coverage from the exact same company, which would consist of home and automobile. If you have a pool or health spa, it’s probably worth altering insurance providers to discover one who uses an umbrella strategy.