Like golf carts and snowmobiles, motorized ground maintenance vehicles are their own special type of property. Not really an automobile, but not normal personal property or yard equipment, they are in a class of their own. As with the other two types of equipment, an inland marine form is the best way to provide coverage. ISO form PM 00 32 is designed to provide coverage for motorized ground maintenance vehicles, their trailers and equipment. The form is virtually identical to the forms for golf carts and snowmobiles See Motorized Golf Carts Form and Motorized Snowmobiles Form. Because of this similarity, only the differences will be discussed here.

Topics Covered:

Motorized vehicle defined

Newly acquired or replacement property

Option

Liability

Motorized Vehicle Defined

a. “Motorized Vehicle” Defined

The following definition is added specifically to this form and does not alter the definitions in Common Policy Provisions Form PM 00 01:

“Motorized vehicle” means a land motorized conveyance, described in the Schedule

above, including permanently installed accessories, equipment or parts, that is:

(1) Designed for ground maintenance tasks such as mowing grass, raking a lawn,

plowing snow, or tilling or grading soil;

(2) Not built or modified after manufacture to exceed a speed of 25 miles per hour on level ground;

(3) Owned by an “insured” or leased to an “insured” for at least 30 consecutive

days; and

(4) Used primarily at an “insured's” residence unless the Limited Business Use

Coverage option applies, and then only to the extent of the permitted business

use.

Analysis

Like the golf cart and snowmobile forms, property on this form must be scheduled, and give the manufacturer, year build, model and serial or motor number. Scheduled property includes the ground maintenance vehicle itself, trailers for the ground maintenance vehicle, scheduled and unscheduled equipment. Like most personal property coverages, this form covers scheduled property while it is anywhere in the world as long as it is shown on the schedule. The loss settlement provisions are described later in the form; this form does not use the provisions in the common provisions form.

The motorized vehicles are then defined as a motorized land conveyance including any permanently installed equipment; this is the same as the other forms. The definition differs in that the vehicle is designed not for carrying passengers but for ground maintenance tasks such as mowing grass, raking a lawn, plowing snow or tilling or grading soil. Like the other equipment is must not be built or modified to exceed twenty-five miles per hour on level ground, and it must be owned or leased to an insured for at least thirty consecutive days. Note that equipment permanently installed is considered part of the vehicle itself; equipment that is detachable or that is not permanently installed would be covered separately under scheduled equipment or the blanket coverage. This form states that the equipment must be used primarily at an insureds residence unless the Limited Business Use Coverage option applies; if that coverage has been selected, then the property is covered but only for that selected business use. That optional coverage is part of this policy and will be discussed later. Note that the property must be used primarily for use at the insured's residence, and not solely. This means that the insured can take his mower over to his grandparents or friend's house to help with yard maintenance as long as he mostly uses the equipment in his own yard.