Renters insurance is becoming mandatory for rental properties as more landlords demand tenants to get insurance. If you’re renting an apartment, house, or townhouse, you can buy renters insurance before you sign the lease. Renters insurance is affordable at only $150/year for the average policy and it protects all your personal belongings. Did you know that renters insurance can also be useful for injuries and medical bills? While we all need health insurance for doctor’s visits and prescriptions, renters insurance can actually be helpful and cover certain expenses related to injuries (up to your policy limit). This guide will focus on how medical payments and rental insurance tie together.
Does renters insurance cover personal injury? Renters insurance covers personal injuries to family members and guests, but not for the policyholder. The policyholder is only covered by landlord insurance if the landlord fails to secure the property and it leads to the tenant’s injury. If someone else is injured at the premises of your rental property, you’ll be able to claim some coverage for medical expenses – limited at $5,000. If the injured person presses charges against you, renters insurance has liability insurance that can cover your attorney fees. If you want to increase the medical payment coverage on your HO-4 policy, you can consult your insurance agent.
Personal Injuries
Medical payments are included on renters insurance, similar to homeowners insurance. Medical payments are different from liability insurance which is a legal liability fund used to cover court filing fees, settlements, etc. Medical payments are the most limited part of renters insurance and you only have a few thousand dollars available in most cases.
If someone is seriously injured at your rental property and their physical therapy costs $10,000 over 3 months, you likely won’t be able to cover it. Still, it’s valuable if you want to help a person who was injured at your property due to your negligence. If someone was injured as a result of the landlord’s negligence, they can pay from their own medical payments/liability insurance fund.
Medical payments will be available for all sudden injuries in the rental property. Let’s say someone slips on your floors and breaks an arm. This would qualify as an injury that is eligible for medical coverage under your rental insurance. If the person files for damages and you have the coverage necessary, the company will pay for the whole injury.
However, if you don’t have the medical coverage necessary then you’ll have to pay for the remainder yourself. In some cases, the insurance company will be able to tap into your liability insurance coverage and use this to pay for the remainder. Keep in mind rental insurance is a lot more limited compared to health insurance and injuries might exceed your coverage by a margin of 10x. This is why you should be careful about who you let into your apartment.
Medical Payments To Family Members
Renters insurance extends medical payments to family and this is the easiest to claim if a family member living in the property is injured. For instance, if your child jumps on a trampoline and breaks their ankle, you will be covered up to the policy limit. You can also claim medical insurance coverage for wrongdoing. If your child intentionally throws an egg at a person and they are injured as a result, you can also use your renters insurance medical payments to pay for their injury.
The only time renters insurance won’t pay out medical expenses is when they’re related to motor vehicles. If a family member injures themselves in a car accident, they’ll have to use their own insurance or the insurance of the person at fault. Keep in mind that once you use up the maximum limits on your medical payments, you won’t be able to file another claim until your policy is renewed. Moreover, these are far more restricted compared to personal property coverage.
Medical Payments To Guests
There is a level of medical coverage that exists in renters insurance for guests. Insurance companies call this “guest liability protection”. If a guest is injured at your property, they can get medical coverage from your policy if they file a claim at your insurance company. As mentioned, this will usually not be enough to cover their medical bills unless it’s a very minor injury.
Landlords Insurance For Medical Payments
Oftentimes, it’s not you who caused the injury but it was the landlord’s negligence. Many landlords don’t bother fixing their apartment units which leads to injuries to the tenants. If this happened to you and the landlord refuses to pay for your medical expenses, you can take them to court and prove it was their negligence that caused the injury.
Landlords typically have landlord insurance policies that provide higher liability insurance limits compared to homeowners insurance. The average landlord has millions of dollars in liability insurance that you (or your guests) can use to cover medical bills if they were at fault. If you were at fault in the accident, the landlords insurance will not cover you.
The bottom line is that medical payments are available on renters insurance for injuries to your family members and guests, but they are often insufficient and won’t cover hospitalization costs and rehab. Even raising the limits on your medical liability will not help you in the event of serious injuries. This is why you must be careful about who you allow into your property and how you decorate the interior to avoid injuries.
