With heavy rain, there is a chance to occur some personal property damage. Favorably, if you have homeowner’s insurance, all of the damage might get covered. In fact, one of the common reasons for claiming home insurance is water damage.
People often ask what type of water damage is covered by homeowner’s insurance. Unfortunately, not every kind of water damage is covered under home insurance. This is why there is great confusion on what can be covered in home insurance.
It depends on what is the actual cause of the damage. For instance, it can be sudden internal damage due to heavy rain, flood, or gradual damage because of negligence.
Generally, homeowner’s insurance covers the damage to your belongings due to extreme weather condition that causes the rainwater to enter. But the damage caused by flood or pre-existing holes is not covered.
Have a look at when home insurance can be a source of financial help for covering up the damages.
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What does Homeowner’s Insurance apply to?
Water damage coverage depends on the source of damage, type of damage (sudden, accidental, gradual), and type of insurance policy.
As a rule of thumb, standard home insurance policies cover sudden and internal water damages and when the water has never touched the outside ground.
Water damage should result from any of the 16 perils to be covered by the homeowner’s insurance policies, such as sudden cracking or burning of a fire protection system, etc.
Here are the circumstances when homeowner’s insurance will cover the damage:
Wind-Driven rain
When rain drives into the home because of a storm or high wind and causes a varying degree of damage to your personal belongings. Hurricanes and tornadoes can also be the cause of rain entering your home.
However, if heavy rain floods your home, it would not be covered under standard home insurance.
Snow, ice dams, and rain
If the weight of heavy rain, snow, or ice dams damages your home and personal belongings. For example, if the ice dams cause your roof to collapse and rain and ice enter your home, the damage will be covered caused by ice dams and rain.
Mold
If rain enters the home due to a crack in the wall or window and mold grows in your drywall. If you already had a leaky roof and neglected the repair that caused the rain to get into the top floor and grow mold, you will not get insurance coverage.
Vandalism
Most standard policies cover vandalism. Also, when your home is broken into while you were away and heavy rain caused water damage, home insurance will cover the repair cost.
However, if your home were vacant for 60 or more days, it wouldn’t be covered unless you have added vacant home endorsement to the policy.
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What are damages not covered by the Homeowner’s Insurance?
Certain water damages might not get coverage under home insurance. Excluded damages are:
Flooding
If heavy rain floods your basement and causes damage, a standard policy will not cover it. You have to get a separate flood insurance policy to get it covered.
Leaky or corroded Parts
If rain enters through pre-existing leaking or corroded parts, it won’t be covered. Since you were negligent in repairing it, you can’t claim the coverage.
Rain damage after weeks or months
When water damage occurs over a period of time, such as water leaking from the roof for weeks or months that damages the home, your insurer will hold you responsible for this damage rather than rain.
Negligence
Insurance companies will never cover the damage caused by negligence. For example, you knew an issue but didn’t repair it, or you left the window open during rain.
Writer and content creator interested in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Jobs and landlord issues. I have a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the Andrés Bello Catholic University, VE, and I also studied at Chatham University, USA. In this blog I write and collect information of interest around agreements, property and mortgage.