How Vacation Rental Insurance Can Protect You from Guest Lawsuits
No vacation property owner ever wants to learn they are the target of a guest’s lawsuit. Unfortunately, claims brought in court don’t need to be legitimate to cause major headaches and frustrations for vacation rental property owners. Defending yourself can also be expensive, even if you ultimately prevail. The good news is that when you have the right vacation rental insurance in place, you can relax knowing your policy provides liability claim defense.
On Your End: Be Forthright in Your Marketing
First things first – you can prevent litigation headaches in a major way by being completely honest in your rental listing. One common type of lawsuit brought by renters involves claims that the vacation property owner misrepresented the property in listings, advertisements or communications. When marketing a vacation rental property, being truthful and forthcoming can lessen the risk that you’ll need to defend yourself later. Of course, you want to position your vacation rental in the best possible light; just be careful not to imply something that isn’t true or hide material information from prospective renters.
Personal Injury Claims
People who are injured while staying in vacation rentals also sometimes take legal action claiming that the property owner or manager was negligent in maintaining the property or failed to take reasonable safety precautions that could have prevented the injuries. Some of the best ways to stave off personal injury liability lawsuits are to inspect your property regularly, conduct regular maintenance and make repairs promptly. Of course, despite your best efforts, injuries can still occur.
Gaps in Coverage
Some vacation rental property owners mistakenly believe that host liability policies provide all the liability protection they need. In reality, relying on host liability coverage could leave you vulnerable. Host liability policies generally cover personal injury claims. Of course all policies have some limitations or exclusions, and you need to understand what those are as each policy may have a wide variance of these exclusions. Making matters worse, even if the injury accident would otherwise be covered, your claim may be denied unless your guests booked the rental through the provider’s listing platform.
Commercial Liability Coverage: Protecting You from All This and More
CBIZ Vacation Rental Insurance policyholders have $2 million general aggregate/$1 million each occurrence of liability protection built into their policies. Coverage includes $1 million in coverage for personal and advertising injury, medical payments, product liability coverage, personal liability protection and more. In addition to coverage for claims, CBIZ policyholders also have claim defense coverage, meaning the insurance company pays for legal fees related to defending property owners against liability claims.
A guest could take legal action at any time, claiming you should be held liable for their losses. Even if you are diligent about your marketing and safety standards, you still need to defend yourself against the claims. When you have CBIZ Vacation Rental Insurance, you have valuable peace of mind.
To learn more about why you need liability protection and to find out how CBIZ Vacation Rental Insurance protects vacation rental property owners, contact us to request a consultation today.
This blog may contain scenarios that are provided as examples only. Coverage is subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy issued. The information provided is general in nature and may be affected by changes in law or the interpretation of such laws. The reader is advised to contact a professional prior to taking any action based upon this information.