Are Roof Leaks Covered By Homeowners Insurance?

One in fifteen homes will file for an insurance claim this year and most of those claims will be about roof leaks. The primary cause of homeowners insurance claims are wind and hail and repairing the damage they bring can cost thousands of dollars. You might be among the countless homeowners who are asking how to repair a leaky roof and how to get homeowners insurance policy to cover your roof replacement. In most instances, a roof leak is covered by your homeowners insurance policy. But its cause is what determines if the damage will be covered. Furthermore, your home’s roof might only be partially covered for the cost of fixing or replacing it. What Can Be Covered By Insurance? A typical homeowners insurance policy will cover the most common risks to a home and they are commonly listed as covered perils in an insurance policy. There are a few policies that cover all perils but not those that are have been listed as not included. The perils, which may damage your roof, that are covered by your insurance include hail, wind, falling branches, and the weight of snow. Meanwhile, the commonly named exclusions that might cause a roof leak but will not be covered by your insurance are neglect, wet rot, mold, fungus, deterioration, wear and tear, expanding, bulging, shrinking, settling, and pest infestation. Your homeowners insurance policy will most likely have more named exclusions but the ones listed above are the most common ones. In case the Florence roof leak is caused by at least one of these conditions, your claim will not be covered. Keep in mind that a home insurance policy is not a maintenance policy and the ones listed above are actually maintenance items that homeowners like you need to deal with. Accidental and sudden damages are the only ones that will be covered by homeowners insurance policies. A few roof leak claims that are covered include falling trees or limbs, windstorm or hail, vandalism or malicious mischief, weight of snow, ice, or sleet, and other falling objects. All of these risks are either accidental or sudden with the exclusion of vandalism or malicious mischief. The latter are still covered because the damage caused is not the fault of the homeowner. Understanding Roof Coverage The majority of the cost of repairing or rebuilding your home is covered at full replacement cost, and that means if the roof damage is worth $10,000 to repair by a roofing contractor, then the insurance will pay you that same amount, less your deductible. The roof is covered for its actual cash value, which is actually a depreciated value based on its deterioration according to its age. Every insurer can use a different method to compute roof depreciation, however, it is common to insure roofs for the actual cash value and not the replacement cost. There are also some insurers who offer full replacement cost for older and newer roofs. However, this type of coverage is becoming less common these days. In case your insurer utilizes a 30 year life expectancy for your roof and your roof is already 20 years old when it had a leak, you can safely bet that your roof repair claim will not be paid at the full cost of the repair or replacement. Your insurer may pay half of the cost. Although not all insurance company penalize those who have older roofs, many of them do. You will find insurers who provide an optional add on to your homeowners insurance policy that gives better roof coverage and gets rid of some of the inconveniences when making roof claims.

Call Florence Roofing Experts if you are having problems with roof leaks.

Florence Roofing Experts Florence, SC 29501 843-212-7825 http://florenceroofingpros.com

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