What Happens if Someone is Injured in Your Pool?

What Happens if Someone is Injured in Your Pool?

There is no better way to have a great summer get together than to host your own pool party. However, have you considered what might happen if someone—say a visiting family member or friend—were to sustain an injury—or even drown—while swimming on your property? That’s right, you could be held liable.

So what can you do to limit both the potential for harm and getting sued? Follow these essential tips:

• Keep all vulnerable swimmers well supervised. Be sure to have a responsible adult keeping watch over children or anyone else who might struggle to keep afloat—especially if there is alcohol being served at your get-together.
• Take steps to keep uninvited guests out. Yes, even if someone sneaks into your pool while you’re not home and gets injured, you could be punished for negligence. This is why it’s important to build high fences and a gate that locks from the inside around your pool.
• Provide Safety gear. Keep floatation devices, like inflatables, a tethered donut or life preservers, handy and maintained, along with a well-stocked and easily accessible first aid kit.
• Maintain Insurance. Protect yourself with property insurance and consider adding extra coverage with an “umbrella policy”. With a body of water on your land, you open yourself up to a wide variety of potential accidents. It goes without saying that you need an insurance policy that can cover everything from accidental injury to unintentional death on your property, if you own a pool.

Follow all of these pointers, and you’ll be well on your way to a fun, carefree summer!