I know that the difference between comprehensive and liability insurance is that comprehensive covers damaged to your vehicle if you are at fault, but does the property damage portion of liability insurance apply to any property that is not the automobile that is insured or to any person's property that is not a policy holder?
Example: car has liability insurance and backs into a garage door. If it's your neighbor's garage door, the default assumption is that it is covered. If it is your garage door, would you be able to file a insurance claim for the damage to the home, or would there be no eligibility because the person who had their property damage is also the policyholder for the automobile policy?
Does a liability auto policy cover property damage if it’s your property?
byu/BadW3rds inInsurance
Posted by BadW3rds
6 Comments
No, basically the legal principle here is that you can’t be considered liable against yourself. If you drive your car into your garage door your auto insurance (collision coverage) would fix your car & your homeowners insurance would fix your garage door. Another somewhat common situation is hitting a 2nd vehicle you own, in that case it would also be 2 separate claims (1 under each vehicle’s collision coverage).
no, there is an explicit exclusion for damage caused to property you own
Most policies have what is called a “Household Exclusion” which means you can’t be liable to yourself for damages to your own property. You would have to go through the separate insurance policies for each damaged property subject to their own deductibles.
Adjuster posted a story recently about someone trying to file a liability claim against themselves lol. There is likely a common yet specific exclusion in written policies’ language detailing that.
What I wonder though is does this apply to different drivers on the policy. For example, a roommate who is listed on both your policy as an added driver for your vehicle, as well as having yoy listed on roommate’s policy as an added driver to their vehicle, hits your car, you both have liability coverage only. Roommate is at fault. Would you be able to file a liability claim against them? Believe answer is yes, but could be wrong if household exclusion applies to other insureds on the policy.
No, you can’t be liable to yourself for obvious reasons.
“Hey, there’s a crack in my foundation. Time to drive a Pinto through it!”
No, because you can’t be held legally liable to yourself. In the example you gave, you would need to file a claim under your auto insurance for the damage to the car, and a claim under your homeowner’s policy for the damage to the garage door.