Hitting a House

[Prospero]

ark,

 

attorney or not, you are 100% incorrect. buying a home on a course constitutes assumed risk. ethics and etiquette dictate that the golfer should pay for damage, but there is absolutely no, nada, zilch legal precedent for the golfer hitting an errant shot in the course of normal play to be held legally liable for breaking a window. legal precedents aside however, if you break a window, do the right thing and leave your contact info.

 

as for guys like ezra and grogger who try and take the "wasn't me" defense, people like you are total pr!cks and an embarrassment to golfers everywhere. may the gods infect you with an incurable case of permanent shankanitis and force you to become tennis players.

[arkstorm]

ark,

 

attorney or not, you are 100% incorrect. buying a home on a course constitutes assumed risk. ethics and etiquette dictate that the golfer should pay for damage, but there is absolutely no, nada, zilch legal precedent for the golfer hitting an errant shot in the course of normal play to be held legally liable for breaking a window.

...and assumed risk is a defense to negligence, not an intentional tort. There is no legal precedence here because its never been taken on appeal, because its hornbook law. If you trespass and cause damage you are liable for the damage. End of story.

[Grogger31]

as for guys like ezra and grogger who try and take the "wasn't me" defense, people like you are total pr!cks

Guilty as charged.

 

may the gods infect you with an incurable case of permanent shankanitis

They already have.

 

As stated earlier, a homeowner assumes risk when he buys a house on a golf course. I spoke with relatives who lives on a course and they do, in fact, pay a higher insurance premium as a result.

 

That said, I would like to think that if approached nicely by a homeowner whose house I hit, I would do the right thing. If I was approached by the homeowner as the OP was, I'd laugh in his face and tell him to first to bite me ... then to sue me.

[jbl]

I may have a little added perspective on this situation than most in that I own a golf course, live on that course, and am obviously a golfer. I have to deal with this occasionally, and it is 100% the golfer's responsibility. The complicated legal argument goes something like this "you hit ball, you cause damage, you pay for damage" pretty simple, it's covered under the golfer's homeowners/renters insurance. The problems arise only when the scumbag won't fess up and you can't prove who did it. Then I (the golf course) will pick up the tab since it's always cheaper to have happy neighbors than not. The same also goes for hitting cars whether driving down the road or parked in the lot.

 

The only assumtion you have in living on a course is that you will get balls in your yard, and if you can't deal with that with good humor then you shouldn't live there. I get balls in my yard all day and half are too embarrased to come get them. I just chuckle because you really have to suck to hit it there.

[wolfpackblack]

ark,

 

attorney or not, you are 100% incorrect. buying a home on a course constitutes assumed risk. ethics and etiquette dictate that the golfer should pay for damage, but there is absolutely no, nada, zilch legal precedent for the golfer hitting an errant shot in the course of normal play to be held legally liable for breaking a window.

...and assumed risk is a defense to negligence, not an intentional tort. There is no legal precedence here because its never been taken on appeal, because its hornbook law. If you trespass and cause damage you are liable for the damage. End of story.

 

I was under the impression that negligence was a valid defense if it was an appendage of the property? A few years ago, a client at my firm where I intern hit a very expensive boat and damaged the fiberglass, but one of the attorneys made the argument that the boat had no business at that area on the property, as it was the worst possible area for the boat to be located. It was before my time, though, so I don't know a whole lot of the details.

[BlackDiamondPar5]

Thanks to all for answering my question about a golfers liability when hitting a house with your golf ball. I've now heard opinions from a golf course owner, an attorney, an insurance guy, people that have actually hit something on someones property and opinions from everyone in between.

 

So in summary it appears the law is clear, the golfer is liable for property damage. The golfers homeowners insurance will definitely cover the damage to someone elses property. The homeowners insurance of the damaged home would also cover the damage. Choosing to fess up that you caused damaged is a matter of honor. But it also cuts both ways, because if the homeowner acts like a jerk about it, you might be prone to blow him off and make him claim it on his own insurance or take you to court. In practice it seems the local judges sometimes play king soloman and make their own rulings that are contrary to the law and in favor of the golfer (those judges must be golfers and know how the golf ball doesn't behave sometime :rolleyes: ).

 

My friend that hit someones car in their driveway talked to the homeowner immediately after he hit his car. Told the homeowner that he would file the claim on his own homeowners policy. The golfer called the homeowner back the next day with the insurance info and the homeowner told him that because the golfer had been so honest and nice, that he not bother making a claim and that the homeowner would take care of it himself.

 

So bottomline, be honest and be a gentleman and offer to file a claim with your insurance. If the politeness is not reciprocated then I guess you can blow off the homeowner if you want and let the homeowner try and pursue you. I like trying the honest and gentlemanly approach first :D .

[palmettoman]

I built a house on the slice side of long par 5 14 years ago. Lived there 3 years and during that time lost 6 windows to golf balls. Only once did I find a note from the offending golfer. Like the post above, I called him to tell him "thank you for being honest" and took care of the repair myself. As far as insurance goes, my experience was that too many claims against your homeowner's insurance would be a quick way to get dropped. In FL, you don't want to have that happen (hurricanes.) In addition, the deductable would usually preclude you from getting a settlement that would come close to covering the damage.

 

During those 3 years, in addition to the broken windows, I had divots taken out of my sod, looked outside one early saturday morning into the face of a golfer looking through my flowerbed that was up against my house, golfers got angry with me making too much noise while cutting my grass, etc. The day we moved in my wife came around the side of the house into the back yard just in time to see a golfer lining up to take a swipe out of my newly layed sod (wasn't even rooted in yet).LOL Needless to say, he didn't get a chance to take that swing!!!

 

I did get even, in a small way, though. I sacrificed a Titleist to the cause. I drilled a hole into it with a large drill bit. Got a 3 foot piece of #4 rebar and epoxied it into the ball and drove it into the ground at the edge of my flowerbed. I can't tell you the pleasure I got out of seeing guys get out of their cart and walk past the "out-of-bounds" stakes into my yard thinking they had just found a free ball. It was so sweet. Also large black rubber snakes placed in flowerbeds increased the laugh factor for me.

 

My neighbor did something a little different...he had a fence (4 foot aluminum) and got tired of golfers hopping over, even though he installed a gate for them to use to get their stray balls. They never checked it, rather just hopped over. Ended up bending it in several places. He mounted a sign to the outside of it that read...

 

My Rottweiler can make it to this fence in 6 seconds, can you?

 

Even with all that, it was nice to be able to come home from a day of work and throw your clubs onto your shoulder and walk a few holes late in the afternoon with a neighbor. I enjoyed many of those. Would I ever live on a golf course again...absolutely. Just would be more careful in picking my lot.

[atlanta golfer]

A couple things worth mentioning here ....... many people including myself carry a high deductable homeowners policy ($1000), also, after a couple claims, the premiums go up. So no use pretending that insurance on anybody's part is really going to take care of the problem.

 

The other thing that strikes me is that in all my years of golfing, I have seen a lot of house and condos hit, and I have done this a few times myself, but have never seen glass broken or actual damage. Might just be luck.