How will homeowner's insurance help with a home maintenance injury?
Transcript:
Jared Richards: Hi, my name is Jared Richards. I'm one of the attorneys at Clear Counsel Law Group. One of our readers has asked, "I was injured at my friend's home while I was performing home maintenance for him. Can I make a claim against his Homeowner's Insurance to cover my medical bills?"
The answer is yes. Something to think about, and something to be aware of is that each insurance contract is different. Each contract specifies what it is that they cover, and what it is that they don't cover. Most contracts differentiate between people who are at a location for social reason or people that are there for professional reasons. If you're performing maintenance and you're getting paid for it, then you probably ... Quite frankly, you might fall under either category, but you could probably qualify for, "I was there working, providing maintenance," category.
We actually had a case a little while ago where somebody was injured in another person's garage, and just the peculiarities of that contract, they were able to get a recovery because they were getting paid for that maintenance. The key here is you need to look at the contract. You should call an attorney, and you should consult with them, read the contract, and see what category of person you are. Whether you are there for social reasons, there for professional reasons, and then what you're recover under that contract would be.
It looks like Brian has a question.
Brian: Would bartering be the same as being paid? "I will fix your house because you watched my dog last week," for example.
Jared Richards: Maybe. It's really a tit for tat. You have received compensation, and now you're performing services for compensation, then maybe. It's one of those things, we'd have to get into the contract, and think about, and maybe do a little bit of case law research to make a decision on that.
Anyway, if you have an issue similar to this give us a call, and we'll see if we can help you out. Thanks.
