Playsets must withstand some pretty harsh weather conditions from snowstorms to lightning storms to hurricanes, and they are occasionally damaged by the severe weather they must ensure. If this has happened to you, you’re probably wondering if your homeowner’s insurance will cover your playset
But, is a playset a structure? This depends on your individual insurance company. If you have a playset or plan on having a playset, you should check with your insurance company about what kind of coverage it will require.
There are no clear answers about whether a playset will be covered by your homeowner’s insurance without calling an insurance company. The good news is that there are insurance companies that will cover it one way or another. Continue reading to find out everything you need to know how insurance coverage as it relates to your playset.
Related: Do Playsets Lower Property Value?
What is Other Structure Coverage?
Standard dwelling insurance coverage will cover your home and any structures attached to it. This means a porch or even a garage attached by a breezeway will be covered under this part of your homeowner’s insurance.
Other structure coverage, also known as Coverage B, is meant to cover structures that are not attached to your home, but still on your property.
To be covered under other structure coverage, a structure must not be connected to the main house. For insurance purposes, an “other structure” can only be attached to the home by a fence or by a utility line.
Examples of other structures include:
- Fences
- Gazebos
- Detached garages
- Guesthouses
- Mailboxes
- Greenhouses
- Detached patios
- Piers
- Retaining walls
- Satellite dish
- Carports
- Sheds
- Sometimes in-ground swimming pools
You can see that most of the structures on this list are fairly permanent. Even if they can be easily removed, you would likely have to damage them to remove them or rip them from concrete bases. Even a mailbox is very firmly planted in the ground with cement.
Things get unclear with playsets because they do not always have the same permanence as these other items. This is a good thing because when your kids grow out of your playset, you will want to be able to take it down, but it won’t help when a tree branch falls on it, and your insurance won’t cover it.
With this in mind, you can see that a playset would be more likely to be considered a structure if it is anchored to the ground, especially with something permanent like concrete. A case could likely be made for ground anchors as well, but it will depend on your insurance company.
You may not need to go to these lengths, however. There are insurance companies that would consider a playset to be an other structure, even if it wasn’t anchored to the ground and cover it under coverage b. The only way to know is to call your insurance agent and ask.
Even if your insurance company does not consider your playset to be an other structure, it may still cover damage to it.
Will My Insurance Cover Damage to the Playset?
Insurance companies will often cover damage to a playset one way or another. There are two ways it might cover it. It will either cover it through other structure coverage or through personal property coverage.
How your insurance decides to cover the playset will depend on your particular insurance. Of course, there are insurance companies that will not cover it at all.
Under Other Structure Coverage
If your insurance covers damage to your playset under other structures coverage, there is likely a limit on the amount it will cover.
This limit depends on your coverage, but it is typically 10% of whatever your dwelling insurance is. If your dwelling coverage is $100,000, then your other structures coverage would be limited to $10,000.
This will only come into play if you have very little insurance on your home, an extremely valuable playset, or a lot of damage to your yard. You can usually add extra other structure insurance to your policy if you have valuable structures on your property.
Under Personal Property Coverage
If your insurance covers damage to your playset under your personality property coverage, it will probably only be covered if it was damaged by a named peril. Your insurance policy will have specific language about what these perils are.
Deductibles
Don’t forget that your insurance will also have a deductible. A deductible is the amount of money you have to pay before your insurance will cover anything. If you chose a high deductible policy and your playset is not worth very much, then you may not get any money from your insurance company.
For example, if you have a $1,500 deductible and your playset is worth about $1,200, you won’t be getting any money from your insurance because the deductible exceeds the cost of the playset.
However, if more than just your playset was damaged, the playset can help you reach your deductible. By this I mean, if you’re deductible is $1,500 and your playset is worth $1,200, but you also had $500 worth of fence get damaged, your insurance company would, in theory, need to pay out $200.
Note: Your insurance will not cover damage to the playset, or any other detached structure, if it is used for business purposes. You would need to make sure it is covered under insurance for your business.
What if Someone Gets Hurt on My Playset?
You’ve constructed your high-quality playset on level ground and according to the manufacturer’s instructions, and you’ve laid out over 9 inches of ground covering all across the play area. You’ve made your playset as safe as it can possibly be. But accidents still happen.
If a child (or a grown up) hurts themselves on the playset in your yard, you could be held liable for their injury. Even if you are not at home when it happens, even if you did not invite the person on to your property, you could be held liable for the injury.
The good news is that most insurance companies will cover you under your home liability insurance. Whether or not your playset is considered a structure does not factor into this.
The Insurance Information Institute recommends that homeowners that have a playset in their backyard increase their liability coverage. Most homeowner’s insurance has at least $100,000 of liability insurance with options to increase it up to $300,000 and sometimes more.
If you would like more coverage than your homeowner’s insurance allows, you can get an umbrella policy, which are generally very affordable. A $1 million umbrella insurance policy can cost as little as $150 to $300 per year (source).
There are some steps you can take to limit the risk of someone hurting themselves on your property.
Small children will be attracted to the playset in your yard, and they won’t care where the property line is or if their mom is chasing after them to bring them back to their own yard.
For this reason, many families like to put up a fence in their yard when they have or are planning to install a playset.
Additionally, you could add motion sensing lights to scare off anyone trying to cut through your yard late at night (or worse) and install security cameras so that you know if anyone does enter your yard without permission.
