Safeguarding Your Property: Is Water Damage Covered by Your Insurance?

Ryker Bingham | Feb 05, 2024

In my line of work, I’m often asked by homeowners whether their insurance will cover their water damage. While I’m not an insurance expert, I have worked with many people in many different situations, so I do have some insight and can usually offer some general ideas about whether property insurance will cover water damage restoration services. All water damage isn’t the same, and all insurance policies aren’t the same, so it’s essential to contact your own provider to see exactly what your coverage is.

There are different types of water damage, and each may be handled differently by an insurance company. Here are the major types we’ll discuss today:

Sudden accidental water damage
Gradual water damage
Water damage from a flood

Let’s jump into these different issues, and I can share my thoughts on how your insurance company might handle them.

Sudden Accidental Water Damage

If your water damage happened suddenly and due to an unpreventable and unpredictable accident, it’s likely to be covered. This type of damage often occurs with a burst pipe or a malfunctioning appliance.

The issue typically develops quickly. For example, you might wake up one morning and find that your hot water heater has leaked all over the floor of the closet it’s in as well as in the adjacent room. Another possibility is that your ceiling suddenly begins streaming water into your kitchen because a pipe behind your upstairs shower has given way. These types of occurrences aren’t something you had any indication was about to happen.

In most cases, this type of damage will be covered in part by your homeowners’ insurance policy. I say “in part” because you will generally have a deductible to pay, and you might also have a limit on the amount paid out. For the most part, though, your coverage should be adequate to pay for a good portion of the repairs and restoration you’ll need.

Gradual Water Damage

Gradual water damage can be a different matter. This often happens if there’s been a slow leak from your roof or from a pipe in the wall that has been going on for some time.

Typically, what happens in these cases is that you might notice subtle signs of water infiltration over weeks, months, or even longer. For example, you might see a small area of discoloration on the ceiling or a wall that grows very slowly. Or you might smell a faint odor of mildew in your bathroom due to a slowly dripping pipe behind the wall. Only when the damage becomes more obvious or when there’s extensive structural damage are you made aware of the long-standing problem.

In these cases, I have seen insurance companies refuse to cover the water damage restoration services. They can argue that regular maintenance could have prevented such issues. In this case, you may need to hire an independent adjuster to look into the situation more closely and to work with you and your insurance company to work out how the claim will be handled.

Water Damage From a Flood

When there’s a flood that happens naturally, such as from massive snow melt, a rising river, or heavy rainfall, many insurance policies will not cover the damage. In this case, you would need to have a separate flood insurance rider in place to pay for the restoration and repairs.

Utah Flood Hazards and Floodplain Management explains that just one inch of water can cause tens of thousands of damage to your property. If you are not in the situation where you’re currently dealing with water damage from a flood, it would be wise to consider purchasing flood insurance.

This is particularly true if you live in a high risk flood zone. A high risk flood zone means that your property has at least a 25% chance of experiencing a flood within 30 years, which is the length of a traditional mortgage. Check to see which flood zone you’re in, and make your decisions accordingly.

Conclusion

Every insurance policy is a bit different, and even if you have one of the most popular insurance companies, your policy might be different from someone else with the same company’s coverage. Water damage can drastically impact both you and your property, and I’ve worked with homeowners who have had to make tough decisions because they didn’t have coverage for their specific type of damage. Talk to your insurance agent to see what type of coverage you have. If you choose to work with me and my team for your restoration services, we’re happy to share what we know and to help you understand your options.