Your kids, their friends and liability coverage

If a child who lives in your household damages someone's property or injures someone, your homeowners liability coverage generally responds, because the child is an "insured" under the ISO HO-3. If a friend of your child is hurt at your house, liability and medical payments coverage can respond too. The gaps are intentional harm, anything connected to a vehicle or a business, injuries to your own family, and incidents where your policy or state law add twists. Parents are not automatically liable for everything a child does, but they often end up in the claim.

This guide reads ISO form HO 00 03 05 11, the 2011 edition posted by the Maine Bureau of Insurance. Your insurer's form and your state's amendatory endorsements control, so check the declarations page and policy.

Which children are insureds

The form defines an insured as you and residents of your household who are your relatives, plus other persons under 21 who are in the care of anyone just described. Two consequences follow.

• Your children, stepchildren and other relatives living with you are insureds, whether they are 3 or 19. Their liability for their own carelessness is covered by Coverage E, and the insurer defends them. Sports collisions, a bike ridden into a parked car, and a window broken by a baseball are typical.
• A child in your care who is not a relative (a foster child, or a friend's child living with you under 21) is an insured too. A child who is merely visiting for an afternoon is generally not an insured, though your own supervision can still lead to a claim against you.

A child who has moved out is a separate question. Adult children who live elsewhere are usually not insureds, with one exception in the 2011 form: a full-time student who lived in your household before leaving for school stays an insured if a relative under 24 or a person in your care under 21. See who is insured on a homeowners policy, and who is not and does homeowners insurance cover a college student's belongings?.

Damage your child causes

Negligence versus intent

Coverage E pays for damages an insured is legally liable for because of an "occurrence," which means an accident. If your 12-year-old kicks a ball through a neighbor's window, that is an accident. If the same child throws a rock at the window on purpose, the expected or intended injury exclusion comes into play. The wording turns on what was expected or intended, and a child's age and understanding can bear on that. Expect the insurer to investigate and possibly defend under a reservation of rights.

The small-claims safety net

Section II includes a separate Additional Coverage for damage to property of others. In the 2011 form it pays up to $1,000 per occurrence at replacement cost, even if no one is legally liable, which makes it useful for neighborly gestures like paying for a broken fence panel without a formal claim. One detail matters here: the coverage excludes intentional damage by an insured age 13 or older, so younger children's deliberate acts can still fall within it. The NC advisory notice for the 2022 ISO edition lists the amount as $5,000 (NC Rate Bureau, Circular P-25-5), but that program takes effect June 1, 2027 and not every insurer uses it.

State parental liability laws

Many states have statutes that make parents liable for a child's willful or malicious acts, usually with a dollar cap or conditions, and general negligence principles can make parents liable for failing to supervise. Details differ by state, and those statutes interact with the policy in odd ways: a parent's liability under a statute for a child's intentional act may still be excluded. For specifics, an attorney in your state is the right source.

Your child's friends and guests

When another child is hurt at your home, two coverages are in play.

• Coverage F, medical payments to others, pays reasonable medical expenses for people injured on the insured location with your permission, regardless of fault, up to the Coverage F limit per person, often $1,000 on a base policy. It does not apply to you or to regular residents of the household. See Medical payments to others (Coverage F) explained.
• Coverage E applies if a parent claims you were negligent, for example by leaving a pool unattended, allowing roughhousing on a trampoline, or failing to supervise.

The hazards people most often discount are the ones kids love. Pools, trampolines, treehouses, zip lines and swing sets can attract children who cannot judge risk, and some states treat them under the attractive nuisance doctrine. Insurers also treat them as underwriting risks, so some exclude or limit trampolines or require fencing. pools, trampolines and attractive nuisances covers the rules in detail.

A sleepover is not a business, but watching other families' children for pay can be. The business exclusion removes liability for injuries arising out of a business, with limited exceptions for small amounts of compensation and certain home day-care arrangements, so a teen babysitter or a family running a paid in-home care service should read running a business from home: the insurance gaps.

When your own child is hurt

Coverage E and F do not apply to injuries suffered by you or by a resident relative. The form excludes bodily injury to an insured, and Coverage F excludes regular residents of the household. Your child's medical bills go to health insurance, and homeowners policies pay nothing for a household member's injuries. A friend of your child, being a guest rather than a resident, is a third party.

If you pay a teenager to work around the house, that can raise a workers' compensation question rather than a liability one. See household employees and workers' comp.

Things that fall outside the homeowners policy

What to do after an incident involving a child

1. Care for anyone hurt first. First aid expenses are covered.
2. Report the incident to your insurer even if no claim has been made, particularly for injuries to other children.
3. Do not promise to pay for damages or medical bills until the adjuster speaks to you, since the policy bars voluntary payments except first aid.
4. Write down what happened, including who supervised and where. Photos of the location help.
5. Tell the adjuster the child's age and the circumstances if the other side alleges intent.
6. Ask whether an umbrella applies and report the claim to that insurer too if a large injury is possible.

Is the limit enough?

A serious injury to a child, such as a head injury or drowning, can produce a claim that exceeds a $100,000 or $300,000 limit, and teens add driving and social media exposure. That is the case for an umbrella policy and for pricing it against the whole household. how much liability coverage should a homeowner carry? and the How much liability and umbrella coverage do I need? help you size the number, and umbrella insurance for homeowners: what it adds and where it stops explains how an umbrella pays.

Key takeaways

• Children living in your household, and under-21s in your care, are insureds, so their accidental damage and injuries to others are covered by Coverage E.
• Intentional acts are excluded from liability coverage, though the property-of-others coverage has age-based wording worth reading.
• Coverage F pays small medical bills for guest children regardless of fault, but nothing for you or your own household.
• Vehicles, paid work and online claims are the common gaps, and they have their own policies or endorsements.
• State parental-liability statutes vary, so an attorney in your state is the source for specifics.