Quote:
Originally Posted by EdVinMass
I would like to address this golf cart insurance issue directly because I think it may be misunderstood and in many cases may be leaving some of you in a vulnerable situation. I’m not a insurance agent, but I take insurance seriously because I just don’t want to be in a situation where I’ll potentially lose everything I’ve worked for over so many years to a shrewd lawyer in a liability case.
Here’s the deal as I understand it. Feel free to jump in and correct me if I’m wrong.
All of you carry home owners insurance. And on that policy is coverage called “Personal Liability”. In my case it’s actually $500,000 and costs a paltry $21/year. This means that if anyone is injured or dies on my property somehow because of my negligence, my insurance company will pay up to that amount to settle the claim. It’s only $21/year and a huge amount of coverage because these types of claims are actually few and far between. But most importantly, understand that the injury/death must occur within the insured property. If you somehow cause injury/death to someone outside your property, it’s not covered. You’re on your own!
That said, it seems to me that some of you seem to be more interested in making sure that your golf cart is insured for damages to it rather than the liability you may be faced with in an accident. With 35,000 residents buzzing around on carts weighing 1500 pounds without seatbelts and reckless grandparents with children behind the wheel and on their laps, someone’s going to get hurt real bad and someone else is going to have to pay, probably you.
So I would appreciate it if those of you who have reported here that you only pay $50 or so a year for golf cart coverage, to actually look at the policy and let us know how much liability coverage it would provide if you and your golf cart cause personal injury to others.
I am sincere about this request.
Ed
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Your HO policy won't pay for any loss caused by a motor vehicle. Golf carts are typically insured under the HO policy "while used for golfing purposes" only. So if you back out of your garage and run over your neighbor in your driveway while you are heading to Publix, the HO policy won't provide coverage, just as it woulnd't if you ran over the same person with your car on your property.
I have a policy with State Farm and the golf cart is the described insured vehicle on the policy. It contains bodily injury liability limits of $250,000 per person, $500,000 per occurence and $100,000 property damage liability limits. Those coverages only cost $15.12 per year.
Uninsured/underinsured coverage with limits matching the liability limits cost $36.12, $250 deductible physical damage on the 2006 Yamaha cart cost $50.22 and 5K in medical coverage costs another 14.10. Total premium for one year is $115.56.
The reason I have the 250/500K limits is that these limits are required in order to have a personal liability umbrella policy which provides $1,000,000 in liability coverage in excess of the liability coverage on my HO policy, auto policy and golf cart policy. The umbrella policy requires what's called minimum underlying limits to be maintained on all your underlying policies. With SF, it's the 250/500k amount.
If any of you have any substantial assets that need to be protected, it's best to have the agent sell you an umbrella liability policy and then insure all your vehicles, golf cart, and home for whatever the umbrella requires as underlying limits.
So no matter what company you are with, ask about a personal liability umbrella policy and insure yourself in accordance with the requirements if you feel you need that policy. And be sure to get adequate uninsured and underinsured coverage also. It protects you from uninsured drivers and the underinsured portion protects you from the people driving around with only the minimum $10,000 liability limits.