Can I file a claim against my neighbor's homeowners insurance?

While helping my neighbor hanging Christmas lights on his property, I fell off a ladder while trying to get up on the roof. I sustained a dislocated ankle, and a fracture. I am out of work for 8 weeks due to the injury. Can I file a claim, or will I have to sue for any help in the medical bills and day to day expenses?

First, your neighbors homeowners insurance will only pay if your neighbor is considered to be liable, meaning he did or failed to do something that caused you to be injured. Was it your neighbor's ladder? Was the ladder rickety? Missing rungs? Was there a hole in the lawn? If you fell because you lost your balance but the property & ladder were both in good condition, your neighbor will not be found liable & there will be no payout from his liability insurance. Just because you were injured on someone's property, does not mean they are at fault. Most people do know the dangers of climbing a ladder. Your neighbor MAY have medical payments to others. This is a "no fault" coverage & your neighbor can ask his insurance company to pay some of your medical bills. He will have to file the claim, you can't. Coverage is usually between $1,000 and $5,000, some companies give up to $10,000 but that is rare. This is probably not enough to cover all of your medical bills but it may cover your deductible & copayments on your health insurance. Do you have short term disability insurance at work? You will have to file for your lost wages there.
If the same injury happened at your own house, you would have to file for the medical under your health insurance & lost wages with your short term disability, same thing here.

I don't think you can file on his homeowner's insurance, but your neighbor can on your behalf (or for you to receive the money). If he does NOT file, then you can sue him. He may choose to file that at that time to save himself some out of pocket expenses.

I would contact my own insurance.

You cannot file a claim directly with another person's insurance. You can request reimbursement from your neighbor. If they don't pay, you'd have to sue. But be prepared to prove that your injury was due to your neighbor's negligence. The insurance company will argue that your own negligence is to blame.

Proving liability has nothing to do with your neighbor's ins. paying for your injuries. You were on his property at his request, no matter the circumstances, he is liable for your injury. He would have to file the claim with his ins. company, you could not do so. It may be a good idea to call your own homeowner's insurance company and ask their opinion also.

Depends on the insurance he/she carries - our policy carries a "good samaritan" clause wherein if we have a guest at our home who is helping us with something and they get injured, our insurance will cover the medical bills arising from said injury. I don't know if it would cover lost wages, etc. but it is worth checking into. You may want to try and negotiate with the neighbor before considering a lawsuit.

No, his policy won't accept a claim from anyone except him.

IF he chooses to file a claim, likely his $500 medical payments would be offered, but that's not enough for what you're looking for.

You're going to have to sue him. You're going to have to prove he was negligent. That means, either the ladder was defective and he knew it, and let you use it anyway, or something else, that he CAUSED the accident. Just the fact that you fell on his property, isn't enough. Even if he DOES report this claim, you're going to have to explain to the insurance company how exactly he was negligent, in causing this accident.

Unless there's NEGLIGENCE involved here, you're not going to win this lawsuit. You'll have to claim under your own health insurance and short term disability coverage, I'm thinking.

Sorry.