Why Do I Need to Endorse Personal Injury Liability on My Homeowners Policy?

Most people when asked if they have personal injury protection in their homeowners policy will answer yes. Unfortunately, the answer is no and the time to find out is not after a personal injury liability claim. A homeowner does have liability coverage for bodily injury and property damage up to the limits of the homeowners policy. However when I say personal injury liability coverage I am speaking of a coverage different than bodily injury coverage.

Personal injury in a homeowners policy refers to damaging another’s character or invading their space. Specifically when there is coverage (subject of course to exclusions and limitations) personal injury protects an insured from unlawful imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, unlawful eviction and search, defamation, libel, and slander.

In the world of insurance we often see personal injury protection applied when there are teenagers in the house with access to Facebook , twitter, snap-chat etc. Parents do not always know what their teenagers are doing on the internet until the parents are served with a defamation of character lawsuit. Of course teenagers are not the only ones associated with social media. There are several other perils associated with personal injury coverage. As with all coverages a person who has this coverage needs to read the exclusions and limitations associated with personal injury protection.

As stated most homeowner policies do not automatically include coverage for personal injury coverage. Instead it must be endorsed on most homeowner policies. The cost is around $25 per year and it is an endorsement I highly recommend.