Kick Back and Enjoy Your Pool This Summer

Kick Back and Enjoy Your Pool This Summer Without Having to Pay a Fortune for Your Homeowners Insurance

While it's hard to believe when it's still so cold outside you can feel your nose hairs freeze, early spring is the perfect time to start thinking about the most crucial element of your summer fun-your swimming pool. There's no better place to be than a cool pool on a day hot enough to scramble eggs on the sidewalk, but as a homeowner you've got more to think about than splishing and splashing this summer.

It's one of life's little injustices, but if a stranger comes wandering in off the street and decides to go scuba diving without their scuba gear at the bottom of your pool the court's going to rule that their accident was your fault. Don't ask, no one really knows why that is. Probably because it's too hard to say for sure if your uninvited guests were really uninvited. It's much easier to just assume you're guilty without giving you a chance to be proven innocent and slap you with the bill.

Hey, no one ever said life was fair.

The good news is that liability insurance for your swimming pool is part and parcel of the liability coverage on your homeowners insurance. Any lawsuits and/or medical expenses resulting from drownings and/or near death experiences will be covered; however, it's up to you to let your insurance company know that there's a giant water trap of splashy splashy death sitting in your backyard just waiting to lure in innocent children like the witch's Gingerbread House in Hansel and Gretel. Every provider has their own policies when it comes to pools.

If you live down south, where "hot enough to make the Devil cry" covers just about every day from May to September, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a provider willing to insure your pool at little to no extra cost. On the other hand, if you're up north where pool maintenance is too much work and expense for the three weeks out of the year it's hot enough to enjoy it your rates are probably going to go up. It all depends on your provider.

Protecting yourself from daytime B&E men looking for a way to cool off is going to be the key to cheap homeowners insurance for your pool. Most insurance companies are going to "suggest" that you:

· Build a fence with a lockable gate around your pool.

· Install your pool in the backyard, where it can't be seen from the street.

· Purchase a pool without a diving board that might increase the risk of accidents-and the number of crazy teens that sneak in to give it a try.

· Install locks on the doors and windows of your home to keep your children and their friends from sneaking out to the pool to go for a dip when you're not around.

· Pick up a lockable safety cover from your local pool supply store to put over your pool when you're not in it.

Swimming pools are a great way to keep temperatures (and tempers) from getting the better of you this summer. Just make sure you're protected against unscrupulous neighbors thinking the exact same thing.

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