Does Home Insurance Covers Trampolines and Treehouses?
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Most homeowners insurance policies cover injuries caused by trampolines and tree houses, but there are often conditions. Before buying a trampoline or building a tree house, check with your insurance company to understand how it might affect your policy.
If your home insurance policy does cover injuries from trampolines and tree houses, you should know that only people outside of your household would be protected by your liability coverage. Injured household members would not be able to file a home insurance claim and would need to rely on their health insurance instead.
Trampolines and homeowners insurance
You could be financially responsible for another person getting hurt on your trampoline — even if you didn't give them permission to use it.
Trampolines are attractive nuisances, meaning, objects on your property that might draw a child's interest but pose a risk to their well-being. As the property owner, you are responsible for attractive nuisances and any harm they cause.
If someone is hurt while jumping on a trampoline at your house, you don't want to be liable for their medical bills. Costs could be extremely high, especially considering one in 200 trampoline injuries results in permanent neurological damage.
Moreover, making a single claim could increase your homeowners insurance premium. This is because insurance companies tend to view liability cases as likely to recur.
Does homeowners insurance cover trampolines?
Most home insurance companies do cover trampolines. In fact, some won't care whether you own a trampoline or not, as long as nobody is injured on it.
However, your home insurance company may only permit a trampoline with some conditions in place. For instance, you may need a safety net around your trampoline to keep jumpers from falling off. Or the company may stipulate that only one person can bounce at a time.
For example, Nationwide has detailed equipment requirements for trampoline owners, including installing tall safety nets and placing the trampoline over sand or wood chips. If you don't comply, they may deny your claim.
On the other hand, some insurance companies might allow you to have a trampoline but won't cover any claims related to trampoline accidents. This can be risky, since out-of-pocket costs for liability claims can be very expensive.
Some companies simply consider the liability of a trampoline to be higher than they are willing to insure. If you buy a trampoline in the middle of your policy's term, they would not renew your policy. To avoid the risk of cancellation or nonrenewal, don't buy a trampoline without talking to your home insurance company first.
Tree houses and home insurance
Exclusions are less common for tree houses than for trampolines. Tree houses are comparatively lower risk. Fewer than 2,800 children are treated in emergency departments each year for tree house injuries, according to the Center for Injury Research and Policy.
Still, you should speak to your insurance company before building a tree house to be sure it wouldn't violate your policy agreement or put you at risk of cancellation or nonrenewal.
If a member of your household is hurt in your tree house–, you will need to file a health insurance claim or pay for any medical expenses out of pocket. If a neighbor or anyone else is injured in your tree house, you are responsible for their medical bills.
If you build a tree house, eliminate obvious risks and do everything you can to make it as safe as possible. Choose a sturdy tree, make sure the structure is soundly constructed and check that it's in compliance with local building codes. Tree houses should not be near any power lines or provide a view into the homes of any neighbors.
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