It’s a nightmare scenario, but one that’s not totally without precedence. Imagine you’re abroad and are responsible for a stranger’s injury, or damage some property by mistake. They may be feeling litigious, and the cost of damages (especially in America) doesn’t come cheap. If you’re smart, you’ll have bought holiday insurance with strong personal liability cover, but even that has its limits. Here’s an explanation of what the kind of personal liability cover that comes with UK travel insurance tends to protect against, as well as an explanation of its limits and situations when you’ll need extra to be truly covered.
What is Typically Covered
Largely what is covered by the kind of personal liability insurance included in travel policies is exactly what’s mentioned above – the costs that you are legally required to pay because you have done something that causes:
Injury or illness to someone unrelated to you
Damage to someone else’s property
Damage to your holiday accommodation (unless it belongs to a you or a family member)
What isn’t Typically Covered
On the other hand, there are areas of litigation which are very rarely covered. Unless stipulated otherwise, it’s very rare for travel insurance to pay damages if the claim:
Is the result of your driving a car or motorbike (this should be arranged with your motor insurance)
Is the result of you piloting a plane or boat (again, you need insurance from elsewhere to cover this)
Is from a member of your family
Is for damage to property owned by you or someone in your family
Could be covered by any other insurance you have (e.g: contents insurance)
Is for deliberate damage, or for damages caused by carelessness
Is related to paid work undertaken by you
Is a result of damages done by a pet
During the Litigation
In addition to this, check your small print for information pertaining to your cover in the event of litigation. Typically, you will be required to send any cause for a legal claim against you as soon as you become aware of it. After this, any supporting documents must also be sent over as quickly as possible to ensure your UK travel insurance company is prepared for your case.
Another stipulation of this is typically a requirement for you not to take any action for the case without the written consent of your travel insurance provider. This generally means you are not allowed to negotiate, pay, settle or admit/deny any claims without the consent of your holiday insurance provider.
Personal liability cover is one of the less important things to be worried about on a holiday insurance policy, but it is a nice extra to have. Because getting into a situation where you need to protect yourself legally is less likely than losing your luggage or getting sick, it is tempting to think that just having some is adequate enough, but make sure you read the small print and make sure you’re getting a fair deal – the last thing you want to do is find out too late that your travel insurance wasn’t quite up to scratch.
Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Journeys Travel. Their commercial travel insurance website, Insuremore (http://insuremore.co.uk/) offers discount travel insurance and a quick and easy online claims feature.
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