dog liability insurance
What Is Tenant Liability Insurance?
When you go look at property insurance and renter’s insurance policies, you may notice a major difference between the two: property insurance only covers property, but renter’s insurance usually also has some liability coverage. Many people don’t even know what this tenant liability insurance is or what it can do for them. Here’s a little bit of information to help you sort it out.
As you can probably guess, property insurance covers your actual property. It means that if someone breaks in through your living room window and steals your surround sound system, your insurance company will pay to replace it. Liability insurance, though, is a whole different ballgame. Basically, it protects you from other costs for which you are liable. This type of insurance can take over in many situations, so some illustrations might help you understand what it does.
If you have a pet, especially a dog, it’s almost imperative that you have this type of insurance. Basically, your tenant liability insurance will protect you from high legal fees if your dog bites someone, whether in your apartment or not. If your dog harms a person, then you will have to pay for his or her medical fees, and you might even get taken to court. A proper liability policy will help you pay these medical and legal fees and will probably also provide you with some legal assistance to get through the mess.
Liability coverage isn’t just for people with pets, though. Really, any time you have people in your home, you need liability insurance. Let’s say that you have a set of friends come over with their two-year-old. When no one is looking, he pulls a lamp off of a table and onto his head, causing a gash that needs stitches. If your friends are really nice, they won’t ask for anything from you since they should have been watching anyway. If they’re sort of nice, they’ll ask for help with legal fees, and if they aren’t nice at all, they might sue you for all you’re worth. If the latter of the two options takes place, you’ll need liability coverage!
Also, if you inadvertently damage your landlord’s property or the property of your fellow tenants – as can happen with clogged sinks and toilets, fires, and other things – your liability insurance will have to cover their property as well as your own.
Dog-bite costs for home insurers rise
Dog bites cost home insurers 6.4 percent more in 2009 than in the prior 12 months, with the average claim exceeding $24,000 for the third straight year, an industry group said.