Cleaning and maintaining your home is not only a sign of good parenting, and good for your health, but could be good for your house’s value: perhaps that’s why people spend about 1-4% of a home’s value every year on maintenance and repairs. However, these repairs can take a nasty turn if you end up getting hurt while cleaning your home. Is there anything you can do to get compensated? Thankfully, yes.
Homeowner’s Insurance Typically Only Covers Liability Concerns
If you hurt yourself while cleaning your home, such as vacuuming your carpet the recommended two times a week to prevent contamination, you may end up hurting yourself. Whether you slip and fall, hurt your back lifting heavy items, or get hurt in other ways, you may need medical treatment to handle this situation. However, your homeowner’s insurance is not likely to help you out here.
Why is this the case? Homeowner’s insurance is designed to handle liability problems and other concerns that typically happen to other people. So, if you hired a maid, and they were cleaning your house, or a friend was cleaning your house for you, and they got hurt, your homeowner’s insurance may help. However, it will only pay the bill if you did something that contributed to the injury.
These types of negligence claims are fairly common and make up many personal injury claims. Of these claims, 96% are settled before going to court, while the other 4% require a court environment. But since you can’t sue yourself to get compensation for your injuries, you cannot and should not turn to your homeowner’s insurance. However, you can still get some help.
Your Medical Insurance May Help You
If you get hurt on your property doing anything, such as cleaning your home or performing routine maintenance, your health insurance may help you. This insurance is set up to cover personal illness and injuries of all types. Even if you get hurt at home cleaning up or performing other types of maintenance, your policy should kick in to help cover your payments and recovery.
However, the availability of this option will vary depending on your specific policy. For example, some medical insurance may have limitations built into the policies that may not cover certain types of injuries. This situation is rare because medical policies are designed to help people in all sorts of situations. But if your payment is too high, or you haven’t yet paid your deductible, you may not get paid.
As a result, it is important to know how to check this situation and gauge whether your insurance will help you out. It is also important to know exactly how your company may help you, including whether they’ll pay your medical team directly or provide you with monetary compensation. Thankfully, understanding this situation shouldn’t be too hard if you take a few simple steps.
How to Be Sure
The best way to be sure about this situation is to contact your insurance company before you ever get injured. If you are already hurt, you can follow these steps to see what to expect:
- Contact your insurance company and ask them about your policy coverage
- Discuss your deductible and other financial factors together
- Make your claim and pay any co-payments necessary
- Appeal any denials, if they occur
Sometimes, the best way to know for sure is to just make a claim and see what happens. Your insurance company will explain what may have gone wrong if you’re denied and will listen to your appeal if necessary.
As you can see, health insurance is an important thing to have if you’re worried about getting injured at home cleaning or repairing your home. Talk to your insurance company about this situation to figure out what you can expect. You’ll need to work with them on balancing your financial needs with their current situation, including the various steps you must take to make a claim properly.
