What Your Home Insurance and Car Insurance Are Missing

Are all the vehicles in your house insured under the home insurance and car insurance plans offered in Omaha? How would you feel if you had a dangerous uninsured liability you did not even know about that could get someone close to you hurt?

The Scenario:

Imagine you’re sitting on the porch on a lazy afternoon while the kids are playing down the block on the sidewalk with the neighbor’s kids. You’re feeling relaxed and content with the knowledge that your everything in your home is fully insured.

You’ve got the best homeowner insurance and car insurance in Omaha. You know that no matter what happens you will be covered so you kick back and relax. In fact, you’re not even thinking about insurance at all.

Then, all of a sudden, your daughter runs over to you and starts screaming and crying, “I ran over Brenda’s arm with my power wheels and she’s really hurt! I think she broke her arm!”

Brenda has to go to the emergency room for her injury. You are distraught with worry, fear, and anxiety, feeling horrible that Brenda got hurt.

You consult with Brenda’s parents and tell them not to worry about the medical bill because your homeowner’s insurance will cover it, of course. You can rest a little easier knowing that at least you can help Brenda’s family with that.

You make a phone call and quickly find out that one of the only things your plan does not cover is battery operated vehicles, including children’s toys. You need a special plan for those types of vehicles.

You feel like an irresponsible parent and a bad neighbor. Not only did you let a child get hurt but you didn’t even have insurance on the vehicle that hurt her.

Brenda’s family is in the hole one big hospital bill and you’re facing a lawsuit.

How could you have avoided this mess? Know your Insurance!

First off, you need to know what your insurance covers and what it doesn’t. Different home insurance and car insurance plans in Omaha will cover different types of vehicles and motorized toys.

Here are some of the vehicles on your property that might not be covered:

• Motorized Kids Toys
• All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs)
• Dirt Bikes, even small dirt bikes for kids
• Golf Carts
• Snowmobiles
• Dunebuggies
• Basically any vehicle with wheels or tracks and a motor other than your car

Motorized kids toys are typically the most overlooked vehicles for liability, bodily injury, and property damage. According to the American Association of Insurance Services, motorized kids toys are becoming a bigger insurance concern as they grow in popularity.

The majority of parents do not think to even consider insuring these vehicles after purchasing them as toys for just a few hundred dollars. Why would you worry about insuring a toy that your 7-year-old will drive?

There are several factors that decide whether or not standard homeowners insurance will cover these ‘toys.’

Two questions to consider are:

• Will this motorized ‘toy’ be driven off of your property?
• Does this ‘toy’ have the capability of going faster than 15 mph?

Motorized toy vehicles driven off of your property are typically no longer covered once they leave your physical property, leaving you vulnerable as your kids play up and down the street.

Motorized toy vehicles or recreational vehicles that travel faster than 15 mph may also not be covered. Take a close look at your kid’s motorized toys to make sure the answer to both of these questions is no.

Even if the answer to both of those questions is no, you still may want to look into seeing if your motorized vehicles are covered under your insurance plans just to be sure you’re not liable.

As these motorized toys rise in popularity they are quickly becoming one of the leading causes of injury for kids. Ride-on toys, including these motorized kid vehicles, now account for 35% of injuries and 43% of hospital visits for kids under 18.

With those injuries come the risks of mounting hospital bills and potential lawsuits from other parents.

So what do you do if your local Omaha homeowner insurance or car insurance doesn’t cover the types of vehicles that you have on your property?

The goods news is that you have plenty of options. You can easily add endorsements to your existing car or homeowners insurance to most Omaha area insurance plans.

The cost of the added endorsement will vary based on what kind of recreational vehicle or motorized kids toy you want to cover and how nice and expensive it is.

You will also need to find out if these vehicles can be easily added on as an endorsement to your existing insurance or if they need a specific policy:

• A dirt bike or an ATV may need a separate specific policy for coverage.
• Your kids’ motorized toys may be added as an endorsement under your homeowner’s insurance to cover liability.

There is only one thing you can do that is going to make figuring this out easy for you, and that is contacting your local independent insurance agent.

Your agent will know the details and complexities of the different homeowner and car insurance plans in the Omaha area. They will know what is covered on your plan and what kinds of motorized vehicles will need to be added through an endorsement or a separate policy.

So, if you want to get some peace of mind and make sure that there are no potentially huge liabilities sitting in your garage, contact your local independent insurance agent today to see how to get these kinds of vehicles covered.