Spring is coming, weather will be warm, and spring break will give us free time to travel, as well as the opportunity of enjoying our own swimming pool if we have one. A pool party is a perfect excuse for sharing with friends and family. Besides, it can make our home the center of the fun in all that remains of spring and summer. Yet, while a pool can add value to our house, it also brings potential risks. Therefore, we must make sure that we have proper insurance for swimming pools.
It is essential to know how our Homeowners Insurance works regarding swimming pools, for example, what kind of pools and in what cases insurance covers them. It is also important to evaluate with an agent whether it is necessary to purchase extra insurance or not.
How Insurance Cover for Above-Ground Pools and In-Ground Pools
Homeowners insurance coverage that applies to our pool depends if we have an above-ground or in-ground pool. That’s because they are considered in different parts of the policy.
Usually, an above-ground pool is part of personal property coverage. That means it’s the same thing as a TV screen or watercraft because this kind of pool can be disassembled and portable if need be. On the other hand, some insurance companies consider in-ground pool to be an external structure, so is generally other structure coverage. The logic on this is that it cannot easily be disassembled and removed from the house.
What Does Insurance for Swimming Pools Cover?
Home Insurance helps protect the pool in case of damage from fire, wind, hurricane or theft. However, there are some circumstances in which insurance usually doesn’t cover issues that arise from an earthquake, general wear and tear or lack of proper maintenance. So, if, for example, a tree falls because the wind on our pool, homeowner insurance will pay for repairs. But whether it be a leakage because old pipes, then we will have to pay for the repair out of pocket.
Typically, Homeowners insurance includes liability coverage. This helps cover injuries and legal or medical expenses. But what happened in case of some neighbor or stranger uses our pool without permission and knowledge and get hurts. Well, all depends if we have the correct precautionary measures.
For instance, if a kid of our neighborhood has an accident in our swimming pool owing to a lack of a fence, we could be held accountable for injuries. Even in the majority of cases, carriers demand safety requirements before covering our pool.
Extra Insurance for swimming pools
A standard homeowners policy provides $100,000 in base to liability coverage. But if we have a swimming pool, we may increase at least $300,000 or even 500,000. That’s because pools raise the risk of an injury happening on our property. We highly recommend to get umbrella coverage in addition to our homeowner policy limits for injuries. This kind of protection begins when we’ve exhausted the required underlying insurance amount of our homeowner’s policy.
So, if we have a pool or we are planning to buy one, we’ll probably want to review with our insurer that we have the right amount of protection coverage.
A pool can be a great attraction for spring and summer months. However, we must protect our investment and our liability too. It’s essential to get the right insurance for our swimming pool, so we can have a pool party without worries.
