Insure children who are incapable of offense in liability insurance!

Properly insure children who are unable to commit offenses through liability insurance

November 19, 2018
Liability insurance

It is generally believed that if parents have a liability insurance, or take out a new one, the children are automatically insured. In principle, this is also the case. Basically – but not always. If the children are still incapable of tort by law, it should be insured separately with an additional component. You can find out exactly what liability-free children are and how exactly you can solve this problem in the following article.

Include incapable children in liability insurance

Usually it is the case that the person causing the damage also has to pay for the damage caused (BGB § 823).

However, it is also important for children whether they have been able to assess their actions at all. was the child so even aware that his trade can / could cause damage to another person / thing.

Children under the age of 7 are considered incapable of tort

Here in Germany, the law stipulates that children under 7 years of age cannot assess this and are therefore considered incapable of tort. In the event of damage in (road) traffic, this limit is even raised to under 10 years (BGB § 828).

Children who are still incapable of tort by law are covered by many liability insurances (especially older tariffs) not with insured. If there is any damage, the liability insurer will reject it directly.

Well, if your child is still incapable of tort by law and then causes damage to another person, he is not liable for it and neither do you as a parent (unless you have violated your duty to supervise – BGB §832).

Parents are only liable if the duty of supervision has been violated

However, if the parents violated the duty of supervision at the time of the damage, the child is not liable, but then the parents still have to pay and the liability insurance has to be paid.

In summary, this means that if your child, who is still under 7 or 10 years old, causes damage and you as a parent have not violated your duty to supervise, the injured party "remains seated" on the damage incurred, since there is no statutory liability.

Legally speaking, nobody can do anything to you. From a moral point of view, things look a little different. If your child e.g. If someone else’s property is damaged, then of course you want to stand up for this as a parent. At first, you may also think that your child’s damage is covered by your liability insurance. This is particularly tricky if the damage has occurred to good friends and you do not want to burden the friendly relationship due to this incident.

Either you pay the damage out of your own pocket or – and this is the absolutely recommendable variant – you made sure with your liability insurance that children who are unable to torture are also insured.

In the meantime, there are very good liability insurances that stand in for property damage and “normal” damage at least, even though your child was actually still unable to torture.

Such a tariff is absolutely recommended for all parents with children under 7 or 10 years. You can find a liability tariff here, which covers the entire family and also includes children who are unable to commit offenses. We have also completed this for our family.

Your Bastian from Insurance with a head