Is the premises liability on my dwelling or DIC policy the same as general liability?

What this means for you

• What happened to us. In 2018 a guest at a short-term rental our founder owned in San Bernardino County, California, left, and he wrote an honest review of the stay on Airbnb. She sued him in small claims court for $10,000, claiming he had "defamed her name" in the review. He held a DP-3 dwelling policy with premises liability on the property, which is the coverage most hosts have and most agents call adequate. The carrier read the claim, found no bodily injury and no property damage in it, and had nothing to respond with. Airbnb, whose platform carried the review, did not help either. The case ended when the judge dismissed it for improper venue, because she had filed in Kern County where she lived rather than in the county where the rental sat. It ended well, and it ended on a procedural point that had nothing to do with insurance.
• Why the dwelling policy could not respond. The liability form on a dwelling policy is triggered by bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence, and both terms are defined narrowly enough that a reputation is not in them. A suit over a review is a suit about words. The carrier was not being difficult; the form it sold had no insuring agreement for the claim. The same is true of the liability section of a DIC policy wrapped around a FAIR Plan, which is premises liability by another route.
• What a general liability policy would have changed. A commercial general liability policy carries a second insuring agreement for personal and advertising injury, and libel and slander are named offenses under it. With that policy the claim would have belonged to the carrier, with its adjuster evaluating it, its money at risk on any judgment, and its decision whether to settle. In California small claims no lawyer appears for either side, so what changes is not who stands at the counter. What changes is that an owner is not doing the thinking alone, and not paying the outcome alone.
• Every host publishes. A listing is an advertisement you wrote. A review of a guest is a statement about a named person, published to the people most likely to matter to her. A photo of a guest or their car in a house rule post is a privacy question. Every one of those is a personal and advertising injury exposure, and none of them is a premises exposure. A property owner who rents to the public is in the publishing business whether or not it feels that way.
• What to buy. A short-term rental policy written on a commercial general liability form, or a dwelling policy with a true general liability policy beside it, at $1 million per occurrence. Read the liability section for the words "personal and advertising injury". If they are not there, the coverage is premises liability, and the review you write next week is your own risk.

Related questions

What does premises liability insurance actually cover?

Bodily injury or property damage to a third party, caused by an accident at the insured property, that you are legally liable for. A guest who trips on a loose step, a visitor hit by a falling gutter, a neighbor whose fence your tree crushed. The carrier pays the damages up to the limit and defends the suit. What it does not cover is anything that is not an injury or damage to property, so a dispute over words, a contract, discrimination, or the loss of somebody's deposit all fall outside it.

General liability insurance

Is premises liability included in a DP-3?

Usually as an option, not by default. A dwelling fire policy is a property policy, and liability is added by a personal liability form or endorsement for a small additional premium. Many landlords and hosts discover at claim time that it was never added. If it was, it is premises liability as described above, limited to bodily injury and property damage.

Dwelling fire insurance

Does a DIC policy carry general liability?

It carries liability, and on most forms that liability is premises liability, filling the hole a FAIR Plan leaves by carrying none at all. It is a real improvement over nothing and is not a commercial general liability policy. An owner who rents to the public wants the personal and advertising injury coverage that only the CGL form carries, which means a general liability policy alongside the DIC rather than relying on the wrap.

Difference in conditions insurance

Would insurance have paid the $10,000 if the judge had ruled against him?

Under the dwelling policy, no. There was no bodily injury and no property damage, so there was nothing for the carrier to pay. Under a commercial general liability policy with personal and advertising injury, a judgment for libel or slander is a covered damage up to the policy limit, subject to the form's exclusions, of which the one that matters most is knowingly publishing something false. An honest review is exactly what the coverage is for.

Can I just not write reviews?

You can, and it removes one exposure while leaving the rest. Your listing is still an advertisement, your house rules and messages are still publications, and a guest can still claim wrongful eviction when you end a stay early. The exposure is in renting to the public, not in the review button. Buying the right form costs less than changing how you run the property.