With the number of families moving to Texas cities over the last few years we have seen an uptick in home building. New construction cannot keep up with the families coming to the Great State of Texas. One of the bi-products of this construction booms has been the master planned community. Developers are taking purposeful approaches that revolve around various amenities that cater to the families. As families spend more time in their neighborhoods, they seek alternative forms of transportation besides firing up the family Suburban. Golf carts are incredibly handy for this, especially if the community includes a course! Your friends at Insurance For Texans see this and our minds immediately go to what might happen. What if there is a golf cart wreck?!
Many Texans assume that their Ft Worth Home Insurance policy will provide protection for them if they drive their golf cart around the neighborhood. I mean come on, they aren't on real roads. And while the homeowners policy does afford coverage for golf carts, it is very specific in how it works. Specificity creates a narrow band of coverage for your ride and any liability conditions that might be created by it. Let's take a look at where this applies.
Golf Courses
If you have rented, borrowed, or are driving your own golf cart on a Texas golf course your home insurance policy will in fact afford you coverage if you have a wreck. The damage to others possessions or the course itself would be ruled as your liability. This means you would be expected to return the other party's items to original condition. The personal liability coverage on your Burleson Home Insurance policy will kick in to repair those items. That means if you run into the clubhouse at Colonial and be asked to repair the building, you've got money up to the policy limit for personal liability. That's great news! The one downside is that if you do this while driving your own golf cart, it would be up to you to repair or replace as the liability coverage would not replace it.
Your Property
The other place that your golf cart will be covered by your home insurance is your actual property. Low speed golf carts that are simply used to move about your property don't have to be registered with the DMV. That makes them similar to a riding lawn mower. So if you're driving around your property and you happen to run over a guest, the medical payments and personal liability will kick in to take care of that person. The same would be true if you ran into their car in the driveway on your property.
Let's address one caveat about use on your own property though. If you've hired a driver to shuttle people or your using it in a form that would be construed as a business on your property, you just chunked that protection out the window. It is important to remember that special exclusion.
What About The Streets?
Back to the master planned community situation. Once you leave your property or are not on a golf course, the coverage that is provided by your homeowners insurance policy vanishes into thin air unless your policy is expressly endorsed for such use. You will in turn lose the protection that comes with that typical home insurance policy and now open yourself up for a lawsuit. The question then becomes how can I get around this?
If you are using the golf cart for transportation around the community (or drag racing your neighbors), you really need to have a low speed vehicle policy. These policies are incredibly inexpensive and will provide you both liability coverage if you are deemed the cause of an accident and property coverage for your cart. Don't leave your financial well being exposed to a dumb mistake by a 13 year old kid racing your neighbor to the stop sign.
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