Trampolines tend to make insurance carriers rather queasy

SIOUX CITY — Children love trampolines and swimming pools with slides and diving boards. Homeowners' insurance carriers typically do not.

A number of insurance carriers won't cover homes that have trampolines or pools at all. Or they'll offer a policy on the property, but with an exclusion endorsement, which relieves the company of exposure to trampoline- or pool-related injuries, leaving the homeowners entirely on the hook.

Others might be willing to underwrite trampolines and pools, but with strings attached, and higher premiums due to the liability exposure.

"Usually what happens is, if it's a brand-new account we're writing, and you have a trampoline and/or swimming pool, that will make a difference which carriers we can write. Most will want a privacy fence with lockable gates, and that's to protect from average persons walking by, or kids in the neighborhood, just coming and jumping in the pool, or getting on the trampoline," said Tim McClintock, president of McClintock Insurance in Sioux City.

Insurance companies tend to be particular about these things. Chain-link fences do not qualify as "privacy fences," because it's rather easy for a passerby to see the enticing trampoline that's just beyond the fence. The fence has to obscure whatever is behind it -- a wood fence could suffice, if it's tall enough and has a locked gate. Privacy fences are also often a requirement for trampoline owners under many city codes.

Insurers are sometimes more lenient with trampolines situated on acreages out in the country, due to the fact that wayward children are less likely to wander over and injure themselves. Trampolines with nets around them can also be viewed more favorably, and pools without diving boards or slides might not be as much an impasse.

For insurers, pools and (especially) trampolines represent an "attractive nuisance" -- meaning they have a reputation for attracting children and then injuring them. According to American Family Insurance, "most insurance companies do not cover trampolines because they consider them too costly due to liability risks."

(As an aside, the legal concept of "attractive nuisance" was first applied in the U.S. in the 1873 Supreme Court case of Sioux City & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Stout, which determined that the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad was liable after a child was injured while playing on railroad property in Nebraska. The term "attractive nuisance" was not yet in use, but the concept was essentially the same; the term first appeared in another court case a few years later.)

The skittishness of insurance companies toward trampolines and pools stems entirely from the actuarial risk that a user will require costly medical care after an injury. Youthful exuberance can raise the stakes beyond an insurer's wildest nightmares.

"When you see like the TikTok videos, 'Hey let's try this challenge' and they run off the garage roof, onto the trampoline, into the pool, and the pool's only four foot, there's a lot of chances for injury that way. Especially if they overshoot the pool. So that can be a disaster," McClintock said.

And health insurance companies increasingly don't want to pay a bill that could be another entity's responsibility -- if, say, an injury occurred in a way that would make it a home insurance carrier's liability.

"That's what we've seen happening more and more, not only with homeowners', property issues, car insurance, and everything else," McClintock said.

"The health insurance carrier comes back and goes, 'Oh, this was an accident. We want this company to pay for it, and reimburse us,'" he added.

Installing a pool or trampoline without telling the insurance company is a poor idea. It can result in a cancelled insurance policy, even before the term is up, due to misrepresentation at the time the policy was written.

Insurance carriers don't joke around about this type of thing, McClintock said. Some of them use Google Earth and even drones to monitor for the existence of attractive nuisances on properties they insure.

"There are existing accounts, where if they add a trampoline or a pool, and they don't tell their agent, they'll get one loss -- say an injury -- and then the company will not renew, because they don't like those exposures," he said. "So if the renewal is coming up, or they could cancel mid-term due to increase in hazard."

Homeowners who take on the liability themselves (the aforementioned exclusion endorsement) may end up regretting that decision. You can't get blood out of a turnip, but that probably won't stop the plaintiff from trying after their child suffers a trampoline-induced fracture.

"Usually what ends up happening is, if it's a medical bill high enough, and they don't have the coverage, the family that has the property that has had the injury occur on the property, has to declare bankruptcy," McClintock said.

McClintock is no stranger to trampoline and pool horror stories. "Diving boards where they've dove in and hurt themselves -- we've had one where they broke their neck. That was a major lawsuit. The company paid out for it, and then set up to not offer renewal again, unless they took the diving board out."

"If somebody gets hurt, the injury could be substantial. So it can be a broken arm, we've had one where the kid's teeth got knocked out because he got them caught in the (trampoline) spring," he said.

It wasn't always this way. Decades ago, McClintock said, insurance carriers were somewhat less nervous about trampolines and pools. Things were different then.

"(In the past), lawsuits weren't as prevalent as they are now," he said. "Medical costs, medical bills are astronomical today compared to what they were then. You broke your arm, they'd set it in a cast, it might be $200, $300 back then. Now, you're talking: 'Well, we're going to do X-rays, we might have to have a plastic surgeon involved, how much injury are we talking about, oh gosh, you've got to go through therapy to get your arm strength back up.' Back then it was, put it in a cast, you're done."

Nobody ever thinks it's going to happen to them -- a person likely wouldn't buy a trampoline or a pool with a diving board if they saw it as a liability and a heartache waiting to happen.

"Everybody's your friend, your buddy and your pal when it comes time to being on the trampoline, but when somebody gets hurt, then they look at you like a bank account," McClintock said. "All these bills are going to be taken care of by you, not us, even though it's our kid, or us, jumping on the stuff or swimming in the pool."