A friend has just had a bunch of leaks in her house and is repairing all, to the tune a several thousand $. SHe is afraid to use insurance b/c she fears she’ll get dropped and won’t be able to get new insurance. This situation is simply nuts! Why have insurance if one can’t use it. She could raise her deductible, but that doesn’t solve the base problem.
How do you mean “leaks”? Insurance (at least my insurance, other policies or states could be different) doesn’t cover plumbing leaks or roof leaks (if your roof needs to be replaced). That’s part of normal maintenance of home ownership. Like saying how come insurance won’t pay for my driveway replacement since it’s all cracked/crumbling.
If there were damage to a roof cause by wind/storm and caused a roof too leak that would be a different story.
They won’t pay for the leaks, but they will, I believe, pay for all the repairs needed (they dug up cement floors, walls, tile, had a ceiling leak too, etc). The leaks are the least of the problem, I think. Its all the other stuff needed to get at the pipes and repair everything back.
I had my kitchen sink leak while it was clogged, ruining my cabinets. Insurance covered a new kitchen to the tune of 55k. In California they have to replace all the cabinets if they are damaged, all the continuous floors if they are damaged, etc…
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It’s fine line and I’m never really clear on where it gets drawn. Clogged drain (or I had a neighbor whose kid left the faucet running with the stopper in and it ruined a kitchen) and it gets covered. Leaky roof because it’s old and in need of replacement? Sorry - not covered - at least not for me.
I had a dying tree in my yard 10 years ago and if it fell it was going to come down on any of 3-4 different structures. I asked the insurance company if they would split the cost of removal of the tree with me… “Nope, but we’ll cover it if/when it does damage falling”. Dumb.
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In general, insurance covers leaks if they are sudden and accidental. For example, the claim I mentioned earlier was from the washing machine load overflowing in a room above a movie theater, so there was water leaking from the laundry, through the theater ceiling. This caused an inflation adjusted ~$50k in damage. The claim was fully covered by insurance, including things like covering the >$10k new replacement cost of a projector, rather than the depreciated value that was close to $0.
However, insurance generally doesn’t cover non-sudden leaks, like a slow pipe leak. My friend in the same neighborhood had this type of problem. She tried to file an insurance claim, but was unsuccessful. Instead she had to pay the 5-figure sum out of pocket. Some insurers offer an option to cover slow leaks, at additional cost.
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Thanks. DOn’t know if it was sudden or slow. But she was away for 2 weeks and came back to a mess
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