I am asking on behalf of a relative who is in a rather unfortunate situation. A few months back, one of her tenants slipped and fell on her property (near the porch, I believe), and is now suing her for the medical fees. Ordinarily, it seems that it wouldn't be a big issue-- normal home insurance policies (ie: HO-3, the most common type... according to the Internet, anyhow) do seem to cover this sort of mishap.

However, the problem is, my relative may have rented out her house to a few too many tenants. Her worry is that if she files the claim to her insurance company, they may be able to not only deny her the money she is being sued for, but also bring about legal ramifications. Neither, of course, is desirable.

So, the questions are:

1.) Is it likely the average insurance company, knowing only about the fall, would investigate deeper into the case before granting the claim?
2.) If the insurance company were to find out, will they have the right to deny the claim?


(And just in case this is of consideration-- the extra tenant who lived on the first floor [but really shouldn't have...] has been asked to move out after this fiasco. However, my relative is still worried about the insurance company really digging around and finding out the previous circumstances.)


I'd greatly appreciate an answer to this question ASAP. If you know another resource I could approach, please inform me of that as well.