Water Damage and Your Homeowner’s Insurance

Not surprisingly, water damage is one of the most frequent causes of home insurance claims. Not many people like having to discover what is and what isn’t covered by their home insurance policy, but that’s often the way that it goes. A pipe bursts in the basement or an appliance such as a clothes washer or dishwasher begins to leak all over the floor while you’re gone on vacation and all of a sudden you find yourself wondering if you’re covered.

For example, if a pipe were to burst in the home due to a drop in temperature and you had left the home vacant and without the heat necessary to keep the pipes from bursting, you might not be covered. They could possibly deny you due to the fact that you did not take the necessary action that would have prevented the event.

If your bathtub overflows, you should be covered, even if it’s just because you were on the phone or tending to another matter in the house and simply forgot to turn off the water.

In most cases if a major household appliance such as a washer or a dishwasher suddenly malfunctions and water spews all over the floor and causes damage, you are covered by your homeowner’s insurance. You’ll have to pay for the cost of fixing the washing machine or dishwasher yourself, but any damage caused by the water itself should be paid for by your policy.

If the cause of the damage is heavy rain and the water leaks through the roof or floods into the basement and the house itself and items inside it are damaged, you should be covered for the cost of the water damage to the interior of your home. The damage to the belongings inside your home is probably not covered, however; if the roof leak was caused by a tree limb falling on the house, then the damage to your furniture, roof, and interior should be covered to a reasonable extent.

One of the major causes of water damage to homes, however, is usually not covered. This is a flood. Unless you have an insurance policy that specifically identifies a flood as a source of damage to the home, you aren’t covered. Flood insurance needs to be purchased from the federal government and your local community should be able to give you information as to whether or not they participate in the National Flood Insurance Program.

Mold and Your Insurance

Under most home insurance policies, mold is one of the few things (along with rust, rot, and fungi) that are generally uncovered unless it is the result of something that is covered by the home’s insurance policy, such as flood damage and the water caused by a burst pipe. However, mold that has been caused by leaks, condensation, or flooding (in the case where the homeowner does not have flood insurance) is not covered.

Even though mold has been around for thousands of years and will continue to be for thousands more, the amount of mold claims that have been submitted to insurance companies have increased significantly. Insurers are beginning to insert some language into their policies that is very specific as to what is covered and what is not. Some companies may soon decide to offer to cover damages caused by mold and will raise the price of the policy and others may choose to continue to completely exclude mold from the homeowner’s insurance policy. In order to guard against the failings of your homeowner’s insurance, removing mold and preventing it from returning is essential if you wish to retain the value of your home and your health.

Anyone who owns or rents property should be aware that mold should be cleaned up as soon as it is discovered and that mold cannot grow without a decent access to moisture. Repairing water damage, the cause of excess humidity, and other leaks should be done immediately in order to minimize the amount of mold that will grow in that area of the property. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that people take measures to safeguard not only their properties, but also their health by making swift work of the mold growing where they live and/or work and taking appropriate measures to make sure it does not return.

Your home should not be completely air tight and a home that is cannot breathe. Homes that air cannot flow freely through are breeding grounds for mold because the air is allowed to become stagnant. You should have vents installed in the bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen in your home.

Wood and other cellulose-based debris should not be placed in any crawl spaces or against the side of the home because mold eats these and any other organic-based material.

Carpet shouldn’t be installed anywhere in the home where moisture should be a problem such as the bathroom where toilets or bath tubs can overflow or in the laundry room where the washer could leak out into the floor.