Water Damage Claims
Water damage is one of the most common reasons for filing an insurance claim with your carrier. While coverage typically excludes perils like flooding or sewage backup, a homeowners policy should cover other sudden or internal perils like a burst pipe. Your dwelling coverage protects against structural damage if it was inside the property. Other weather-related perils causing damage can also be covered under your policy.
Water damage can be caused by many things. Thankfully most homeowners' and commercial property policies have coverage for these losses. While storms are the first thing that come to mind when one things about water damage, the following are some other examples of how water can damage your home:
- Water supply lines underneath your sinks become damaged or wear out
- Water supply lines in the walls behind where your sinks, tubs, and showers are located become damaged or wear out
- Water supply lines that are underneath your home or commercial building that are embedded in the concrete foundation become damaged or wear out
- Water supply lines that are underneath your home or commercial building that are in the crawlspace of the building become damaged or wear out
- Backups and overflows due to blocked or slow drains
- Backups and overflows due to worn out cast iron plumbing systems
** A special note about plumbing systems, both water supply and drain lines - many policies provide coverage to tear out the old system and to repair the damage due to the tear out when the system causes water damage covered by the policy. Even minor water damage can trigger this valuable coverage - even if the damage resulted from age, wear, and tear of the system. Sadly, many insurers will not tell you about this coverage!
If you have water damage due to any of these or if you don't know where the water is coming from call a plumber immediately, then call us.
Just because your insurer says something is not covered doesn't mean that's the case. Call us and we'll tell you what's covered and what's not.
Mold is a common aftereffect of water damage that can lead to further damage to both the property and any of its inhabitants. We recommend making the necessary repairs as quickly as possible to avoid any potential health risks. If mold is determined to be a result of neglect or gradual deterioration, your insurer will likely not cover any damage associated with it.
Decay relates to the break down of the quality of an object. In this case, foundational materials can decay as a result of water damage. This decay could attract other issues like termites and carpenter ants, thus creating more damage to your property.