In Palm Springs, the pool isn’t an amenity, it’s basically a room of the house. From the mid-century gems in Twin Palms and Vista Las Palmas to the newer builds out toward Desert Palisades, almost everyone has one. So what happens when a guest slips on the deck or someone gets hurt in the water?
Good news first. Your homeowners policy usually covers it through personal liability, which pays when someone else gets hurt at your place, plus medical payments coverage for smaller injuries no matter who’s at fault. (Quick broker’s aside from us at Uncle Sheldon Insurance, since we see a lot of desert policies. That default liability limit is often lower than people assume.)
Is your limit big enough? Many policies start liability somewhere around $100,000 to $300,000. A serious pool injury can blow past that fast. That’s why so many Palm Springs homeowners add an umbrella policy, which stacks a million or more on top for a surprisingly reasonable price.
Diving boards and slides. Some carriers surcharge them, some exclude injuries from them, and some won’t write the home at all. If your Old Las Palmas pool still has the original diving board, make sure your policy is fine with it.
Fences and gates matter. California requires new and remodeled home pools to have at least two drowning prevention features, like isolation fencing, self-closing and self-latching gates, or alarms. Insurers like to see them too, and some ask about them before they’ll write the policy.
The rental twist. This is the big one in Palm Springs. If you rent the house out, whether for Modernism Week or a long Coachella weekend, a regular homeowners policy may not cover a guest’s injury during a paid stay. Rental guests need rental coverage. We dug into that in renting during Coachella.
Pool season never really ends out here, so it’s worth checking your liability limit before the next pool party, not after.