Homeowners Insurance & Trampolines: What to Know

By Jon Merwin, Founder and CEO, Licensed Insurance Advisor

Short answer: it depends on the policy. Many homeowners policies will pay if a visitor is hurt on your trampoline and you’re found responsible, up to your liability limit. But a trampoline is one of the few backyard items that insurers ask about by name, and the answer you give can lead to safety requirements, an added exclusion, an extra charge or, with some carriers, a decision not to insure the home. The surest step is to tell your agent before the trampoline goes up, then read what your policy says about it.

We’re Portsmouth Atlantic Insurance, a family-owned independent agency based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, working with 40+ carriers to place home coverage throughout New England. Clients have given us 1,000+ Google reviews and over 2,000 testimonials. With 200+ years of combined experience on our team, we’ve seen trampoline questions come up at renewal time, after a backyard injury, and when a family buys a house with one already in the yard. This guide walks through each of those situations.

Why insurers pay attention to trampolines

Insurers decide which homes to accept, and what to charge, based on how likely a claim is. Most backyard features don’t move that needle much. A trampoline does, for two reasons: injuries on them are common, and the people most often hurt are children, including children who aren’t yours.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s trampoline safety tip sheet lists the habits that cut down on serious injuries: one jumper at a time, an enclosure to prevent falls, a spot away from structures, trees and other play areas, adult supervision, no full-size trampoline use by children under 6, and regular checks for missing parts and torn pads. Insurer conditions often mirror that list.

The attractive nuisance idea

Insurers also think about attractive nuisance. Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute describes it as a dangerous condition on a property that may especially draw children onto the land. Under the doctrine, a property owner can owe trespassing children a duty of reasonable care, much as if they had been invited, when the owner knows or should know children are likely to come onto the land and the risk is one they wouldn’t recognize. Courts apply it narrowly, case by case, under state law.

The insurance industry treats swimming pools as an attractive nuisance; the Insurance Information Institute says so directly in its guide to pool safety and insurance. Trampolines raise a similar concern. A neighbor’s child who climbs onto your trampoline while you’re at work can still turn into a liability claim against you, which is why fencing and a locked gate come up so often in insurer guidelines.

The parts of a homeowners policy that can come into play

A trampoline touches four different parts of a typical homeowners policy. Each has its own rules, and it helps to keep them separate.

• Personal liability. If someone who doesn’t live with you is hurt and claims you were at fault, this coverage can pay damages you’re legally responsible for, up to your limit, and usually pays for a lawyer to defend you on top of that limit. This is the coverage trampoline exclusions usually take away.
• Medical payments coverage. A smaller, separate amount that can pay a guest’s injury bills without anyone having to prove fault. It’s meant for minor injuries, it has a low limit compared with liability, and it never pays for injuries to you or to the people who live with you.
• Personal property. A trampoline that isn’t attached to the ground is generally treated as your belongings. Damage from a covered cause, such as a windstorm, a falling tree, vandalism or theft, may be paid after your deductible. Wear, rust, sun damage and torn mats aren’t covered.
• Dwelling and other structures. If wind picks up the trampoline and slams it into your house, garage or fence, the damage to those structures is usually handled under the dwelling or other structures part of your policy, again after the deductible.

For a broader look at what each section of a policy does, see our guide to what homeowners insurance covers.

How insurers handle trampolines

There is no single industry rule. In our experience the approaches fall into a few groups, and two carriers can treat the same backyard very differently:

• No special treatment. Some policies cover trampoline injuries the same way they cover any other accident on the property, with no extra questions after the application.
• Coverage with conditions. Many insurers that accept trampolines expect safety features such as a netted enclosure, padding over the springs and frame, a fenced yard or locked gate, and no ladder left in place for small children to climb. If a condition is written into the policy and isn’t met at the time of a loss, the claim can be disputed.
• An exclusion endorsement. Some carriers will insure the house but attach an endorsement that removes liability and medical payments coverage for injuries tied to a trampoline.
• An added charge. Because the liability risk goes up, some insurers charge more for a home with a trampoline. How much varies too widely to estimate here.
• Declining the home. A few carriers won’t write a home with a trampoline at all, and some may non-renew a policy if one appears later.

The Delaware Department of Insurance’s consumer alert on summer activities puts the stakes plainly: an insurer can deny coverage or cancel a policy if you don’t follow its safety guidelines or don’t tell it about a new pool or trampoline.

Common trampoline situations and how coverage often works

A general guide to how standard homeowners forms usually respond. Policy wording, endorsements and the facts of the case all change the answer.

Situation	How a homeowners policy often responds
A visiting child breaks an arm on your trampoline and the parents seek damages	Personal liability may respond if you’re found responsible, unless the policy excludes trampoline injuries
A guest needs a quick urgent care visit after a fall	Medical payments coverage may pay small injury bills regardless of fault, up to its limit
A neighbor’s child uses the trampoline without permission and is hurt	Can still lead to a liability claim; how it plays out depends on the policy and state law
Your own child, or another person who lives with you, is injured	Not a homeowners liability or medical payments claim; those coverages are for other people
A windstorm tosses the trampoline into your garage	Garage damage is usually handled under other structures coverage, after the deductible
The same storm sends it into a neighbor’s car or fence	Often handled by the neighbor’s own coverage; your liability coverage generally comes in only if you were careless
A falling limb crushes the frame	May be covered as personal property, after the deductible
Heavy snow bends the frame or tears the mat	Often not covered; many forms limit snow-weight coverage for belongings to property inside a building
The policy has a trampoline exclusion and a guest is hurt	Liability and medical payments generally won’t pay; an umbrella may exclude it too

Read any trampoline exclusion closely

If your declarations page or endorsements list mentions trampolines, find the actual wording. A few things to look for:

• What it removes. Many trampoline endorsements take away liability and medical payments coverage for injuries arising from the trampoline. Some are broader and reach other recreational equipment.
• Conditions versus exclusions. A condition (for example, “must have a netted enclosure”) keeps coverage in place if you follow it. An exclusion removes coverage no matter how careful you are.
• Whose trampoline. Some wording applies to any trampoline on the premises, not only one you own, which matters if a neighbor lends you theirs for the summer.
• Your umbrella policy. A personal umbrella sits on top of your home and auto liability. Many umbrellas require the underlying policy to carry certain coverage and may carry their own exclusions, so an umbrella doesn’t automatically fill the hole an exclusion leaves. Ask before you assume it does.

If you’re weighing higher limits, our umbrella insurance page and the umbrella insurance calculator explain how much extra protection many families carry, and our New Hampshire umbrella guide covers the details for Granite State homes.

Who a homeowners policy protects, and who it doesn’t

This is the point that surprises families most. Personal liability and medical payments coverage are written to protect you from claims by other people. Injuries to people who live in the home, including your own children, fall outside both coverages. Those costs run through the family’s own health plan, not the homeowners policy.

That leaves three groups who could make a claim: invited guests, such as a birthday party crowd or a babysitter’s children; neighbors’ kids who come over to jump; and children who wander in without asking. Fencing, supervision and posted house rules can all matter when someone asks whether you were responsible.

The New England side of trampoline ownership

Weather here adds problems that most trampoline advice skips, and several involve your insurance.

Snow load and winter storage

A foot of wet snow on a trampoline mat is a lot of weight, and frames do bend. Many manufacturers recommend brushing snow off or removing the mat and enclosure for the winter. On the insurance side, damage from the weight of snow is usually a covered cause for the house itself, but for belongings many policies limit it to property inside a building. A trampoline left out in the yard may not qualify, so the simplest fix is taking the mat in before the first storm. Our post on snow and ice damage insurance in the Northeast covers the house side.

Wind, nor’easters and summer storms

The CPSC tip sheet warns against using a trampoline in high wind because it can shift, move or blow away. An unanchored trampoline is essentially a large kite. Coastal gusts, nor’easters and summer thunderstorms all move them. Anchor kits that screw into the ground help, and many owners also fold down the net in a storm watch. Damage to your own home is a normal property claim. Damage to a neighbor’s property is more complicated: their own policy often pays for wind damage to their house or car, and their insurer may then look at whether you were negligent, for example by leaving it unsecured during a forecast storm.

Trees, ledge and tight lots

Older neighborhoods in Portsmouth, Exeter, Newburyport and many other towns often have small lots, mature trees and fences close to the property line. The CPSC suggests placing a trampoline away from trees and structures, which can be hard on a narrow lot. A limb that comes down on the frame may be a personal property claim, but a dead tree you were warned about can be treated differently; see our posts on tree removal after a storm and preventative tree removal.

Lake houses, beach cottages and rentals

Families often put a trampoline at the summer place, where cousins and neighbors visit all season. If you rent the home to guests, the picture changes again. Many standard homeowners policies limit or exclude coverage for rental activity, and a guest who books your cottage isn’t the same as a friend you invite. Read our pages on secondary and seasonal home insurance and short-term rental insurance in Hampton before adding a trampoline to a property you rent out.

Before you buy or set up a trampoline

• Call your agent first. Ask how your current carrier treats trampolines and whether any conditions or exclusions would be added.
• Review your liability limit. A serious injury claim can exceed a basic limit quickly. Ask about raising the home policy limit or adding an umbrella.
• Choose the setup with the conditions in mind. A model with a full enclosure, padded frame and springs, and a way to anchor it is more likely to meet the conditions insurers commonly set.
• Pick the spot carefully. Level ground, clear of trees, fences, sheds and the house, and ideally inside a fenced yard with a gate you can lock.
• Set house rules and post them. One jumper at a time, no flips, no young children on a full-size trampoline, and an adult nearby, all drawn from the CPSC tips.
• Keep the paperwork. Hold on to the receipt, model information and photos of the setup. They help with a property claim and show the safety features were in place.

Buying a house that already has a trampoline

Sellers often leave play equipment behind. If the house you’re buying has a trampoline in the yard, tell your agent before the policy starts, because the application may ask and some carriers’ inspections photograph the yard. Our article on home insurance inspections explains what inspectors usually look at, and our post on dog breeds and homeowners insurance covers another liability question insurers ask about at the same time.

If someone is hurt on your trampoline

• Get them help first. Call 911 for anything serious.
• Write down what happened while it’s fresh: who was jumping, who was supervising, the weather and the condition of the trampoline. Take photos.
• Keep the trampoline and any broken parts as they are until the claim is sorted out.
• Report it promptly. Most policies require prompt notice of an accident that could lead to a claim. Call us and we’ll help you report it to the carrier. Talking about fault is best left to the insurer’s claim team.
• Ask about medical payments coverage for a guest’s minor injury.

Wondering how a claim may affect your record or renewal? See how long claims stay on your record and whether a claim raises what you pay.

When the kids outgrow it

When the trampoline comes down for good, tell your agent. If your policy carried a trampoline exclusion, surcharge or condition, it may be possible to remove it, and some carriers that passed on your home before may be willing to quote it now. If you’ve had trouble finding coverage, our guide to non-renewed and hard-to-place homes in New Hampshire walks through the next steps.

What to ask your agent or insurer

• Does my policy, or any endorsement on it, mention trampolines or recreational equipment?
• Are there safety conditions I have to meet, and are they written into the policy?
• What are my personal liability and medical payments limits?
• Would my umbrella policy respond to a trampoline injury, or does it follow the same exclusion?
• Is the trampoline covered as personal property, and for which causes of loss?

Bring these to us and we’ll go through them with you, at no cost. Our agents place home insurance in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and the rest of New England, and we can see how several carriers treat a yard with a trampoline. Our explainer on the declarations page shows where your limits appear, and a policy review checks the home, auto and umbrella pieces together.

Want to know whether your current policy has a trampoline exclusion? Send us your declarations page and endorsements, and we’ll find the wording for you.

Frequently asked questions

Does homeowners insurance cover trampoline injuries?

Often, but not always. If a guest is hurt and you’re found responsible, personal liability coverage may pay up to your limit, and medical payments coverage may pay smaller injury bills regardless of fault. Some policies exclude trampoline injuries entirely or require safety features, so check your own policy and endorsements.

Does having a trampoline increase homeowners insurance costs?

It can. Because a trampoline increases the chance of a liability claim, some insurers charge more, some add conditions or an exclusion, and a few won’t insure a home with one. Others make no change. What it does to your cost depends on the carrier.

Do I have to tell my insurance company about a trampoline?

It’s strongly recommended. Applications often ask about trampolines, and some insurers can cancel or refuse to renew a policy if they find one that wasn’t disclosed or that doesn’t meet their safety conditions. Telling your agent up front avoids a surprise after a claim.

What safety features do insurers usually require?

Requirements vary, but the common ones are a netted enclosure, padding over the springs and frame, a fenced yard or locked gate, and no ladder left in place for small children. Anchoring the trampoline against wind is also a good idea here in New England.

Is the trampoline itself covered if a storm damages it?

Usually it’s treated as personal property, so damage from a covered cause such as a windstorm, falling tree or theft may be paid after your deductible. Wear and tear isn’t covered, and damage from heavy snow on a trampoline left outside often isn’t either.

Does homeowners insurance cover my own child’s trampoline injury?

No. Personal liability and medical payments coverage are for injuries to people who don’t live with you. Injuries to your own children or other people living in the home are handled through the family’s own health plan. Call us at (603) 431-4020 if you want to review how your policy treats guests.

Sources

• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission: Trampoline Safety Tips (Neighborhood Safety Network)
• Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute: Attractive nuisance doctrine
• Insurance Information Institute: Pool safety and insurance
• Delaware Department of Insurance: Consumer Alerts, Backyard Fun (Pools and Trampolines)

Current client with a question about your coverage? Stop by our Service Center or submit a policy change request.

This article is general information about how homeowners insurance often treats trampolines. It is not legal advice, and it doesn’t offer or promise coverage. Whether a particular injury or damage claim is paid depends on the policy form, its endorsements, the carrier’s underwriting rules, state law and the facts. Your policy is the final word, and we’re happy to help you read it.