What amount of liability insurance for community swimming pool is reasonable?
We have a neighborhood pool that belongs to the homeowners. It has been decided not to have lifeguards and let residents swim at their own risk. I am concerned someone may drown or get hurt and the homeowners will be sued. How much insurance would be considered adequate to prevent any court settlement to result in a lien against each homeowner’s property.
Tags: Amount, community, community pool liability insurance, Insurance, Liability, liability insurance fo a community pool, pool, public pool liability insurance, reasonable, swimming
How much is a dead child worth to a jury? How about two dead children?
I don’t think $1,000,000 is enough, for sure. I’d want that association to carry at least $5,000,000, and I’d want a tall gate around that pool, that locks – and only the homeowners have a key.
The real question isn’t what liability limit is sufficient, the question is who is covering the liability. If the owner’s homeowner’s insurer found out that the pool was being used by the community with no supervision the insurer is going to want to come off risk right away. Worse yet what if there was a claim and the insurer wasn’t informed what was going on? The insurer would have grounds to deny the claim due to misrepresentation. A homeowner’s policy is intended to cover risk normally associated with a residence. Hosting a community pool is not a typical residential risk. The homeowner would be wise to speak with their broker/agent immediately and discuss this with them. Maybe if the broker/agent is slick enough he might be able to convince the insurer to stay on risk but exclude liability for the pool. At that point the owner would need a commercial policy to cover the liability for the pool, which is going to cost several thousand dollars due to the exposure, plus you would need limits of $5 to $10 million to adequately cover their exposure.