Your roof is leaking. Now what?
The primary query most owners have after they uncover their roof is leaking: will insurance coverage cowl the harm? As standard, it is dependent upon what brought about the roof leak and the way quickly you seen it and took motion.
Let’s break down 5 widespread roof leakage eventualities and the way your own home insurance coverage could reply in every.
State of affairs 1: Roof Leak Attributable to a “Coated Peril”
On this situation, the incident that brought about your roof leak was one that’s coated by your insurance coverage coverage – a “coated peril.” In a typical owners insurance coverage coverage, coated perils embody the next:
- Lightning strikes
- Falling objects (like bushes)
- Fireplace
- Wind
- Explosion
- Hail
- Weight of ice, sleet, or snow
- Affect from a land or air car (like a falling airplane fragment)
- Theft or vandalism
- Riots
If any of the above brought about your roof leak, there’s a great probability your insurance coverage could pay to restore the leak itself. Assuming you discover the leak rapidly and inform your insurance coverage firm instantly, your coverage may additionally pay for secondhand harm the leak brought about (e.g., water harm to private possessions).
There’s a large “nevertheless” right here: for those who don’t discover the leak for a number of months after it occurs, there’s an opportunity your coverage will solely pay to restore the roof harm itself and never any further harm brought on by water or creatures the leak let inside. Extra on that beneath.
State of affairs 2: Roof Leak Attributable to Poor Upkeep
We’ve talked about earlier than that insurance coverage insurance policies don’t provide protection for put on and tear harm. It additionally doesn’t provide protection for harm that might have been prevented by common upkeep.
So in case your roof’s leaking since you uncared for to replace it or clear the gutters or in any other case do fundamental house upkeep, your insurance coverage firm could deny your declare and refuse to pay for repairs.
That’s as a result of it’s your job as a home-owner to do fundamental upkeep. The insurance coverage firm is barely on the hook when surprising and acute occasions trigger harm.
That is additionally why a leak you didn’t discover for a number of months may not obtain reimbursement for all of the associated harm. Somebody who maintains their house to cheap requirements would have seemingly seen the leak earlier than the water harm escalated.
Observe: it is a broad overview. Each particular person circumstance is totally different. It’s potential that there’s a superbly legit motive you didn’t discover a roof leak for a while after it occurred.
State of affairs 3: Roof Leak Attributable to a Non-Coated Peril
As you could have guessed by the phrase “non-covered,” a leak brought on by an occasion your owners insurance coverage doesn’t cowl seemingly received’t result in an insurance coverage payout. In a typical house insurance coverage coverage, the next occasions aren’t coated:
- Earthquakes
- Floods
- Put on and tear
- Lack of normal and correct upkeep
In different phrases, if any of the above brought about a roof leak, assume you’re by yourself to pay for repairs.
State of affairs 4: Roof Leak Attributable to Poor Workmanship
So what occurs for those who’re a diligent home-owner and change your roof on schedule, however it springs a leak as a result of the roofing contractor you employed did a substandard job?
This may be actually irritating, not least as a result of new roofs aren’t low-cost. The unhealthy information is that your owners insurance coverage seemingly wouldn’t cowl a leak brought on by shoddy workmanship. However that doesn’t imply you’re with out choices. In that situation, you could possibly make a declare on the roofer’s insurance coverage coverage.
Because of this it’s so essential to ensure the folks you rent to work on your own home are insured. Generally, you’ll wish to make certain the roofer you rent has an lively normal legal responsibility insurance coverage coverage. That coverage ought to provide cost for property harm brought on by the roofer’s work (like a leak to your roof and subsequent harm to your own home).
To confirm protection, ask to see a certificates of insurance coverage earlier than you signal a contract. Once you do, test to ensure the coverage expiration date is someday after the top of the work they’ll be doing on your own home.
Nonetheless Have Questions on Your Roof?
Try our different roof-related weblog posts: What’s in a Roof? and The Nuts and Bolts of Florida Wind Mitigation. Or give us a name to speak with one among our in-house insurance coverage gurus.