The Legal Liability of Fire Damage Explained

2/26/2020 (Permalink)

Fire damage in an Oklahoma City, OK

While you never want to experience a fire in your home, the statistics show it happens frequently. Fire departments across the United States respond to hundreds of fires each day, in homes and in businesses. These fires have the potential to cause expensive fire damage. It's important to protect your home and family from the effects of a fire. Part of fire preparedness is to have the right amount of insurance for your needs. One insurance issue that is fairly complicated is the matter of legal liability.

What is Legal Liability?

Liability in a legal sense means that you were somewhat responsible, typically in a negligent fashion, for an event that caused damage to another person. In the case of a fire, this could mean a fire that you started by accident results in property loss or damage to someone else. It is often most pertinent to tenants of a property. These factors could apply:

• Insurance coverage is often included in the general liability policy
  
• The coverage refers to the tenant's liability for fire damage on the rented property
  
• The coverage is limited to damage to the rented property
  
  

Monetary limits for this coverage generally are in the $50,000 to $100,000 range. They might not cover contents or other collateral damages such as fire damage restoration. The coverage only kicks in if the resulting fire damage is the responsibility of the insured.

Who Needs Legal Liability?

When you rent a property in Oklahoma City, OK, you could be required to purchase legal liability coverage. This is to make sure a fire that breaks out on your property will be covered in some fashion. In other words, the landlord wants protection for his or her property for occurrences such as smoke damage.
Fire damage calls for the services of a professional smoke remediation team. Be sure to call in experts who can respond to a fire in a matter of hours.