Negligence

What Does Negligence Mean?

Negligence is when a person doesn’t act in a responsible manner and fails to use the caution that a reasonable person would under the same circumstances. This leads to damages that could have been avoided if the person wasn’t negligent.

For example, if a person fails to fix a leaky pipe and it bursts, that would be a loss from negligence. If a person doesn’t shovel their driveway and the postman falls and gets hurt, the postman could sue the homeowner for negligence.

Insuranceopedia Explains Negligence

Insurance policies usually don’t cover losses from negligence. Because the policyholder could have prevented the loss by acting in a responsible manner, the insurance company won’t pay. When you file an insurance claim for property damage, the insurance company will send over someone to investigate the claim before they’ll pay you. One of the things the inspector will watch out for is signs of negligence. For example, if your roof collapses, the inspector will look for signs of disrepair to see if the roof collapse could have been avoided.