This of course is a large reason why one purchases insurance, to help cover things they may be liable for. However, there are some liability instances where an insurance company will not provide coverage at all or at the least very limited coverage. This type of liability is called absolute liability.
Absolute liability is when one is considered liable regardless of fault. Another name for absolute liability is strict liability. Absolute liability is usually not a covered liability or has limited coverage because absolute liability is usually associated with extremely hazardous situations or activities.
One common example of absolute liability would include keeping a dangerous animal as a pet. If the pet hurt anyone the pet owner would be liable. Even if the pet was teased or mistreated and that is what made the pet hurt someone. It does not matter. Just owning a dangerous animal as a pet, under some insurance policies, the pet owner would be considered absolutely liable and the insurance policy would not cover any liability issues associated with the dangerous pet.
Another common example of absolute liability would be owning a pool. Insurance companies generally don’t like for their insureds to have pools and sometimes provide limited liability homeowners insurance coverage to pool owners. This is because most of the time if someone is sued due to something happening in their pool, the pool owner usually carries most of the blame just because the law considers one who owns a pool is inherently liable. Even if someone is hurt in the pool and was in there without the owners permission, the owner still could carry a lot of the liability for the accident just for deciding to own a pool. Therefore, the insurance company knows that a pool owner could potentially cause the insurance company to have to pay out substantially more money than a non-pool owner.
Being absolutely liable for damages, for the average person, is usually rare. And most insurance companies will have coverages for any special situations that a homeowner may have that could potentially be in the category of absolute liability. Of course, it comes down to cost. The higher the potential of absolute liability that the insured has then the higher the premium the insurance company is going to expect.
There are things one can do to try and limit their absolute liability exposure. First, one should ask their insurance agent what things their company may consider falling under the absolute liability category. Usually they will get responses such as dangerous animals, pools, storing explosives and unlocked firearms. Next, the insured would need to decide how they can reduce their absolute liability exposure. For instance, putting a lock on their firearms and keeping them in a locked storage area would be a good idea. If one has a dangerous pet, they could keep a double fence around the house and use a muzzle whenever the pet is around other people.
Once the absolute liability exposures have been addressed, the insured can then see if the insurance company would consider giving them coverage or reduce their premium for taking steps to reduce their risk of absolute liability. Even if the insurance company still does not agree to cover the absolute liability instances, it is still important for the insured to keep these extra safety measures in place so if there is an issue, the insured will be in a more favorable position showing that they tried to take extra measures to prevent any damages.
