Airbnb premises accidents present special challenges when it comes to getting compensation
If you are injured on another party’s property, they could be liable for your damages under the legal doctrine of premises liability. We see this principle in action often in cases involving slip and fall accidents in stores, hotels, and other places of business.
But what if you are injured on an Airbnb rental property? While you may be able to prove conclusively that the Airbnb host is liable for your injuries, their inadequate insurance coverage could make it very difficult to actually get the cash you deserve. When pursuing this type of accident, you will definitely want an experienced premises accident injury attorney like Fernando D. Vargas on your side to help you receive your compensation.
General Premises Liability Principles
In any premises accident case, it is necessary to secure evidence showing that:
- A hazard or defect existed: Common hazards include slippery floors, inadequate lighting, bunched carpets, loose handrails or guardrails, unsafe furniture, etc. Basically, property owners are expected to protect guests from any hazards that a “reasonably careful” person could be injured by.
- The property owner should have addressed the hazard: Property owners have a duty to inspect their properties regularly and remedy any defects or hazards. But they are not expected to be omniscient and detect and remedy every hazard as soon as it appears. This means it is necessary to prove that the property owner either did know of the hazard, or else should have known about it through reasonable inspections, and yet did nothing. Note that is it not necessary for the property owner to fix the hazard if they put up a warning sign instead.
- This hazard caused your accident and injury: Once it is established that a hazard existed and the property owner was negligent in not addressing this hazard, you will need to produce evidence showing that the hazard caused you to suffer an injury. Testimony from eyewitnesses and your medical records will satisfy this requirement.
- You did not contribute to your own injury: If you used the property inappropriately, behaved recklessly, or failed to notice signs or obvious hazards because you were distracted, you could share in the liability for your accident.
Added Complications for Airbnb Accidents
If you were injured on the premises of an Airbnb rental, you would have to prove all the above points. However, once liability for the accident was established, you would then face the challenge of actually getting paid.
According to the insurance experts at property360.com, Airbnb’s host protection insurance policy (which is designed to protect hosts against premises injury claims) has some very worrisome gaps:
- Coverage is limited to $1 million per occurrence—but this is a shared limit, and the policy only offers a total of $10 million for all claims in the US
- Coverage only applies if the homeowner’s insurance denies coverage—though this is likely to happen if the homeowner’s insurance views the Airbnb activity as business activity
- Only injuries incurred during the actual stay are covered—so if you arrived early or left late and were injured when you were not actually renting the property, you could not make a claim
Fortunately, even if there is no insurance coverage available for your accident, you could still get compensation from the property owner personally. Attorney Vargas could help you pursue this option if necessary.
