If your Central Florida home experiences water, mold, or fire damage, it’s helpful to know beforehand just what your homeowners’ insurance coverage is. The good news is that most standard homeowners insurance policies provide coverage to repair or replace your home and its contents in the event of damages. And that usually includes damage caused by water, mold, and fire, but not always. Let’s look at each potential claim.
Does Your Homeowners’ Insurance Cover Water Damage?
Most homeowners’ policies cover water damage, albeit with some caveats, including whether the damage was “sudden and accidental.” For instance, if your home floods from a burst pipe, your insurance company will want to know if the pipe broke accidentally or if negligence is to blame. In other words, if you were aware of an issue that could damage the pipe but did not attempt to mitigate it, the insurance company could hold you responsible for any resulting water damage.
Roof leaks are usually covered by standard homeowners’ insurance policies, provided they’re caused by a covered event such as a storm. Flood damage, on the other hand, is almost always excluded from standard homeowners’ insurance policies, so you’ll generally need a separate policy for this type of insurance coverage.
Does Homeowners’ Insurance Cover Mold Damage?
Your homeowners’ policy might cover mold damage, but usually only if it results from a covered danger. As with water damage, if a mold problem is caused by neglect or lack of regular upkeep, your insurance policy probably won’t cover it. Insurance companies often deny mold coverage if your home has:
- Improperly sealed doors and windows.
- Unaddressed leaks.
- Poor ventilation, especially in bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms.
Other common causes of mold damage that typically aren’t covered by standard policies are sump pump failures and flooding.
As mold damage coverage varies from policy to policy, be sure to talk to your insurer about what your policy includes.
Does Your Homeowners Insurance Cover Fire Damage?
Homeowners’ insurance coverage typically includes the repair or replacement of your home and belongings damaged in a fire, as well as unattached structures such as garages or guest houses.
- Dwelling coverage includes your home and any attached structures like a garage or shed. It can also help pay for any costs you incur while living away from your home while it’s being repaired.
- Detached structures include garages, sheds, guest houses, and fences.
- Personal property insurance coverage generally extends to personal belongings like furniture, appliances, and clothing. Some policies cover things like landscaping, but you’ll need to review your policy to see what reimbursement you’re entitled to.
Understand Your Homeowners’ Insurance Policy
Understanding your homeowners’ insurance policy’s details is critical so you know what you can expect in case of a claim. Many homeowners purchase policies that satisfy their mortgage lender requirements, but in many cases, it’s insufficient coverage to rebuild a home and replace everything in it.
Depending on where you live and your financial circumstances, you might want to consider a replacement cost policy instead of an actual cash value one. Replacement cost policies provide the coverage you need to make repairs or replace your home and belongings at current costs. Cash value policies, however, factor in depreciation and other factors.
What To Expect When Working with a Remediation Company
Central Florida Restoration Solutions provides water damage restoration, mold remediation, and fire damage restoration services, as well as smoke damage solutions to ensure your family and home are protected.
While it’s important to contact your insurance company as soon as possible about a claim for water, mold, or fire damage, it’s also essential to begin the remediation and restoration process quickly to minimize further damage.
- Our water damage restoration services include drying out and sanitizing your home and identifying which of the three categories of water damage your home’s experiencing.
- Mold remediation focuses on removing mold quickly and thoroughly and getting the indoor mold level back within a normal range.
- Fire damage restoration services ease the emotional and financial stress caused by a house fire. We work quickly to stabilize your home after a fire to limit smoke and acidic soot corrosion and deterioration. We also help assess whether certain items should be replaced rather than restored.
With decades of experience and specialized tools and technologies, our skilled technicians are ready to handle any water, mold, or fire damage your home suffers. Because they’re certified in multiple disciplines, our team members are uniquely qualified to help make the home disaster remediation and restoration process as stress-free as possible.
You can depend on us to:
- Quickly respond to your home disaster 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
- Expertly clean up water, mold, and fire damage.
- Return your Central Florida home to its pre-loss condition as quickly as possible.
- Work closely with your insurance company.
We’ll also keep you informed of the progress we make every step of the way and provide you with clear documentation of our results.
No matter what type of damage your home experiences, the professionals at CFRS are ready to help. To learn more about all our home restoration and remediation services, contact us online or call us at 407-988-6101.
