Personal Injury Attorney
In the early 2010’s the taxi industry was upended when the Uber and Lyft apps became available with a simple premise. Be able to hitch a ride anywhere and for less than you would if you were to take a cab. Taking the world by storm, it not only created a brand new industry on top of an existing one, but it also forced the creation of new personal injury laws, rules, and restrictions in order to accommodate this great change in public consumerism. Now a new app is gaining popularity in the form of Swimply, a combination of “Simply and Swim” the app allows homeowners to rent out their pools to those looking for a nice summer swim, but happen to not have access to a pool of their own.
But just like with Uber and Lyft with a new sharing platform comes a change in personal injury laws except that change hasn’t happened yet, leaving home owners very vulnerable to personal injury lawsuits should any of these pool outings go awry.
At the very least, these homeowners would be subject to nearly the same rules as any other public pool. In which, first, the pool must be up to code. This way the owner can’t be held liable for any injuries that are related to the structure of the pool like a person getting injured from their foot slipping on the stairs of the pool or a person getting injured from a water jet being so strong that it breaks the skin of a child.
Also, the owner owes all those individuals on their property a duty of care meaning that all hazards around the pool must be cleared as well. When your own kid trips and falls at his own house, there’s obviously no need for a personal injury lawyer. But if someone else’s children trip and fall in an area that happens to be messy near the pool, that’s a different story since you could be held liable for not clearing the area of all hazards.
Now just like Uber and Lyft, Swimply comes with a million dollars in coverage should something happen. But it’s been advised that one should check their home insurance policy either way since some policies have clauses stating that they can’t rent out their pool, so this would leave them vulnerable nonetheless if they happen to wind up being sued for an injury.
If you have questions about a case, contact a personal injury attorney like the lawyers at Daniel E. Stuart, P.A. for help.