Negligence

Glossary

If you are renting your apartment or home, it is important to carry renter’s insurance in order to protect yourself and your possessions from theft or damage, a protection not afforded by the landlord’s insurance.

Renter’s insurance provides a wide range of coverage for damages or losses resulting from theft, vandalism, malicious mischief, fire, smoke and water. In addition, renter’s insurance can provide financial protection for policy holders if someone is injured at the policy holder’s home.

However, those with renter’s insurance should be aware that their insurance policy most likely will not cover any losses or injuries that are the result of the policy holder’s negligence. For example, if a policy holder fell asleep while smoking a cigarette and started a fire in the apartment, the insurance company most likely will not cover any damages resulting from the fire because your negligence – falling asleep with a lit cigarette – directly led to the fire in the first place.

There are several scenarios in which an insurance company might find the policy holder negligent and therefore refuse to provide coverage for any claims. Here are two common situations that can result from policy holder negligence.

Premises Liability Cases

Renter’s insurance can provide coverage to pay for any medical expenses incurred as the result of an injury sustained by a visitor in your home, known as a premise liability case. However, if the injury is caused by a dangerous condition which the policy holder knew existed but failed to correct, then the insurance company most likely will find the policy holder negligent and therefore responsible for covering any costs on his or her own.

Depending on the extent of the injuries sustained, premise liability case could result in considerable damages, including medical expenses, rehabilitation expenses, lost income due to the injury, reduction in earning capacity due to the injury, physical and mental pain and suffering and, in cases with severe negligence, punitive damages.

One of the most common premise liability cases is a slip and fall accident, in which an individual slips, trips or falls on property maintained by someone else. Everything from torn carpeting to poor lighting could result in a slip and fall claim. In such cases, the inured party must prove that the policy holder knew of the conditions that led to the fall. However, if the policy holder can show that the injured party should have been aware of the dangerous surface and thus avoided it, then the fault lies solely on the victim.

Intentional Damages Cases

Intentional damage is just as the name asserts – damage that was intentionally caused in some way. While insurance policies will cover accidental damages, they will not cover damage resulting from intentional, malicious or illegal acts. And this clause extends beyond the immediate policy holder – if the policy holder’s spouse, children or other relatives living in the home intentionally cause some type of damage, most insurance companies will consider the damage as the result of negligence. Some policies might even include an estranged spouse in this group of culprits if his or her name is still on the policy.

For example, if a policy holder’s child accidentally hits a baseball through a neighbor’s window, the insurance policy most likely will cover the damages. However, if it can be proven that the child purposely threw the ball through the window, the insurance company could find the policy holder negligent and not cover any damages resulting from the thrown baseball.