After all, plumbing problems often cause severe and expensive destruction to your house. Luckily, damage from plumbing issues (typically) falls under the general ‘repair coverage’ you get from most homeowners policies, in either the property coverage section or personal belongings coverage section of your policy.
Accidental damages typically are covered, while gradual wear-and-tear issues or lack of maintenance cannot.
Water Damage
Plumbing problems due to lack of maintenance or general neglect, including slowly leaking pipes that burst and cause extensive water damage in your home, are losses that might be excluded from your homeowners insurance policy. Your claims related to flooding damage to your home caused by long-term, slow leaks could also be denied by insurers.
Nevertheless, if you remain proactive about drain-blockage and get your pipes regularly cleaned, sudden and accidental plumbing damage should be covered by insurance for homeowners. (Note that flood or sewer backup coverage comes with a separate policy.)
Once again, this is all wide open: each policy is written individually and Openly is happy to write policies to any client’s specific needs so each person is covered how they need to be covered in the way they need.
If you have questions about your coverage or need advice on protecting your home, reach out now! We are here and ready to help.
Sewage Backups
Sewage backups can be a big pain, too, and costly to remedy – most standard homeowners’ insurance doesn’t cover sewer damage. Most companies offer optional sewer backup coverage as a policy add-on, for premiums that tend to vary by state and flooding risk.
Waste water and raw sewage can instantly enter into your home through a sewer backup, ruining your floors, furniture, clothes, appliances and possessions. These disasters are typically caused by a blockage in your sewer line from your home to your septic tanks or city lines – and you might smell these clogs even before they become a problem via bad odors from drainage. The most apparent sign of an obstruction is a slowly draining sink or toilet, followed by waste backing up from the toilet.
If sewerage backs up into your home, turn off its main water valve and evacuate the property. Call a licensed plumber, who has tools to clear blocked sewerage away swiftly and safely. To reduce sewer overflows, install a modern sewer system. Older systems break down more frequently and are likely to overflow or back up more readily than new systems.
Pipe Breaks
Burst pipes refer to pipe damage caused by a crack or hole inside a waterline pipe, which can lead to an uncontrollable water leak. Burst pipes can be caused by frozen temperatures, corrosion due to the wrong specification of in let pipes, physical damage due to the pipes being moved or generally due to a lack of maintenance, that is why it is important to talk to a trusted plumber about the measures we can take to avoid pipe breakage.
A routine drain isn’t put in place during a remodel or installed in a new house unless it will be useful for the long term, and a leaky faucet can usually be easily fixed as a simple DIY project – on the other hand, a ruptured pipe can lead to some serious water damage to your home and to your business – from the wet floors, to ruined furniture, to mouldy walls that are dangerous to human health as well as a loss of inventory in an industrial setting.
Homeowners insurance usually covers sudden damage by plumbing accidents – as long as they weren’t due to careless maintenance or neglect – but water damage that seeps in over time, like dribbles or drips, is rarely covered. So, checking for leaks, protecting against freezing in cold climates, and putting a swift end to minor plumbing problems are all things you can do to help make sure you never need to file a claim.
Frozen Pipes
Frozen pipes are the most common home plumbing problem when temperatures begin to fall. As they freeze and expand, pipes add more and more pressure to pipelines and then explode. These burst pipes can flood your home with up to 1,000 gallons of water, causing costly and severe damage.
Burst frozen pipes that cause water damage to your home are generally covered by homeowners insurance. However, if your pipes froze because you turned off your heat before going on holiday, you might be out of luck.
The best way to prevent this problem is to keep your home heated, and to open any faucets connected to the pipes that are affected; this will help drain it and reduce the risk of it freezing. An electric heating pad or hair dryer or space heater might be able to warm the frozen part of the pipe; otherwise, you’re probably out of luck, and you’ll need to call your own plumbers.
- Tuesday, December 17, 2024
