Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
Dear Insurance Adviser,
We have a honey bee hive on our roof that is home to a couple dozen bees, and we recently were told by a neighbor that she would be contacting her attorney because she got stung. These bees have never bothered us at all. If she sues us, would the liability coverage in our home insurance take care of any or all of the lawyer’s fees? What about any damages?
— Sally
Dear Sally,
Good news! Home insurance policies pretty much universally include worldwide personal liability coverage to a limit of at least $100,000 for any damages. Defense costs are covered separately and completely until the full liability limit has been paid to the injured party.
Limits higher than $100,000 are available at minimal extra cost. For example, the additional cost to raise the limit to $500,000 is as low as $20-$30 a year. Additional liability coverage is one of the best buys in the insurance business. The extra liability protection comes with continued defense coverage until the higher limit has been paid in damages.
As an aside, it doesn’t seem like your neighbor has much of a case. You’re not raising bees and don’t have a honey-making operation. You are just a homeowner peacefully coexisting with nature. Some bees have adopted your roof as their home.
Where is the negligence? Even if it’s true that one of your bees did sting her, she would have to prove that the guilty bee came from your hive. Good luck with that!
I hope that helps.
Compare homeowners insurance rates to find the best deal.
Ask the adviser
To ask a question of the Insurance Adviser, go to the”Ask the Experts” page and select “Insurance” from the drop-down box. Read more Insurance Adviser columns.
Bankrate’s content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by Bankrate’s Terms of Use.
Share