Will my car insurance pay for damage to borrowed property?
I borrowed my neighbor's riding lawn mower and accidently back into it with my car. My insurance company said there was no coverage for the riding mower. Why?
Normally when you damage someone else's property with your car, your property damage liability coverage will pay for the damages. In this case, when you borrowed your neighbor's lawn mower, it was in your "care, custody or control" and your personal auto policy has an exlusion for liability coverage when the damaged property is in your possession.
There are some circumstances where property damage liability would apply, such as if you are renting a house and back into the garage. Since you are renting the home, you have a legal liability to the landlord and your car insurance policy would pay for the damages. If you owned the home, however, your policy would not pay to fix your garage since you cannot be liable to yourself.
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