Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Lawn Mower Accidents?

If one of those thousands of lawn mower accidents happens on your property, will your homeowners insurance cover the damage? Let’s explore the answer.

Yes and no. If anyone who lives in your home gets hurt by a lawn mower, your liability insurance won’t help pay for your medical bills. Or, if your mower gets damaged in an event that isn’t included in your policy, such as a flood, you won’t be reimbursed for repairing or replacing it. 

Homeowners insurance can help out with certain types of lawn mower accidents, but not all of them. First, let’s go over the ways homeowners insurance does cover lawn mower accidents:

However, there are some cases when lawn mower accidents aren’t covered by homeowners insurance.

Yes, all kinds of lawn mowers are covered under the personal property section of your homeowners insurance, along with everything else you own, such as furniture and clothing. That means you can make a claim if it gets damaged, and your insurance company should pay for repairs or replacements, up to your policy limit. 

But sometimes, that policy limit isn’t high enough. Anyone who’s bought a riding lawn mower knows they can cost several thousand dollars, and most insurance policies have a limit of around $1,000 to $2,500 per item. In that case, if your mower was destroyed completely, your insurance may not cover the total cost of a replacement, and you might be stuck paying in part out of your own pocket. 

If you have a riding mower that costs more than $2,500, you might want to raise your personal property limit by adding an endorsement to your policy, just to make sure your mower is fully covered.

Coverage also depends on what caused the damage to your mower. Different insurance policies cover different perils (aka events), so your insurance will only reimburse you in the event of a covered peril. 

For example, general wear and tear isn’t typically a covered peril. If your mower gives out from simple old age, your insurance can’t help you. But if it’s damaged in a fire, stolen from your garage, or another covered peril, your insurance will kick in. Check your policy to find out which perils it covers. 

Yes. In fact, homeowners insurance only covers someone else using your lawn mower. That is to say, it doesn’t cover any injuries to you or your family. 

But if you pay the teenager from down the street to mow your lawn, or if you have a kind neighbor who mows the lawn for you every once in a while, and one of them gets hurt, your insurance can help cover their medical bills. If they decide to hold you liable (by suing you), your insurance pays for your legal fees, too.

Again, though, your standard homeowners insurance may not provide enough liability coverage. Most policies automatically come with $100,000 of liability coverage, but severe injuries and long hospital stays can cost a lot more than that. If you’re going to have other people mowing your lawn, increasing the risk of injury on your property, it’s a good idea to increase your liability insurance. 

Yes. Dwelling coverage (the part of your insurance that covers the structure of your home) is less limited than personal property coverage. 

Your dwelling is usually covered on an open peril basis, which means it’s covered for anything other than the specific events excluded from your policy. Unless your policy specifically excludes lawn mower accidents, it will cover any part of your home that gets damaged by your lawn mower. The same goes for other structures on your property, such as a shed or fence. 

Your car isn’t included in this coverage. So, if a rock flies out from the mower blades and chips your vehicle’s window, that would be a claim for your auto insurance, not your homeowners insurance.

What if you hire a professional landscaping business to mow your lawn, and one of the workers gets hurt while on your property? Who’s responsible for those medical bills (and legal bills, if they sue)? Well, homeowners insurance will usually cover contractors under your liability coverage. 

That being said, you should still make sure you hire a lawn care company with its own business insurance. Their insurance should cover any damage they do to your property, any workers who get hurt, and any of their equipment that malfunctions. Ask for proof of insurance before letting landscapers (or any contractors) work on your property. Beware of contractors who charge extremely low rates, as they might not carry insurance. 

As you can see, you don’t necessarily have to put any extra insurance on your mower. It’s mostly covered under your standard homeowners insurance. 

However, for increased lawn mower insurance coverage, you can add endorsements to your policy, such as:

You don’t need to worry about whether or not your homeowners insurance covers lawn mower accidents if there are no accidents on your property in the first place. While you can never 100% guarantee safety, there are things you can do to minimize the risk of someone getting hurt. 

Here are a few tips for preventing lawn mower accidents:

No matter how hard we try, though, accidents happen. At least now you know how homeowners insurance for lawn mowers works in case something goes wrong. 

1 “Lawn mower injuries presenting to the emergency department: 2005 to 2015” from The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, volume 36, issue 9