Home insurance and legal liability: What you need to know
Plenty of homeowners and renters have their houses and belongings insured. If something happened – like someone broke in and stole your precious TV, or a fire damaged your house – you want to know you’ve got the coverage you need to get back on your feet.
But, we hear you, you know all that. What you may not realise is, as part of your home or contents insurance policy, you may also be covered for legal liability costs.
What is legal liability and what does it cover?
While home insurance covers your property, and contents insurance makes sure your possessions are all taken care of, public liability covers people at your home. Legal liability is designed to cover bodily injuries and deaths that may occur at your home, to people who don’t usually reside there. It can also cover damage to other people's property due to an incident that occurs at your home.
This type of cover exists because, if someone is visiting your property and injures themselves, it may technically be your ‘legal liability’ to pay for the costs involved (like medical attention, for example). This will depend on the circumstances, but if the liability does fall on you, the costs can add up to big bucks. Having insurance coverage can really help out.
What’s not covered under legal liability?
Each insurance company will have different inclusions in the legal liability coverage provided through their home insurance policies. Most will provide cover that includes bodily injuries, deaths, and damage to other people’s property as a minimum. Some will also include illnesses that people pick up at your house, but that varies.
It’s always a good idea to read your PDS to get a better idea of what is and isn’t covered. You can find all of AAMI’s policy documents here.
Will I even use legal liability?
Having someone injure themselves at your house may seem pretty unlikely … until it happens. Some common reasons why people file legal liability claims include:
Injuries caused by dog bites.
People slipping over and causing serious harm to themselves, like a fractured or broken bone.
If the person who has been injured or had their property damaged doesn’t live at your home, you could be legally liability to cover the costs.
Which AAMI insurance policies include legal liability cover?
AAMI provides legal liability cover of up to $20 million per incident with all of our home insurance policies. That includes:
Home and Contents Insurance
Building Insurance
Contents Insurance
Landlord Insurance
Strata Insurance
If you’re not an AAMI customer, check out our home insurance policies. We have a bunch of different products available to suit different budgets and needs, all of which provide that invaluable legal liability cover.
Read more:
- Top home insurance claims in Australia - Are you covered?
- How to save money on home and contents insurance
- Does my Home Insurance cover me for flood damage
Insurance is issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 AFSL 230859 (AAI) trading as AAMI. Any advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situation or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it. Please read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before you make any decision regarding this product. The Target Market Determination is also available.