When it comes to water related damage in your home, the cause of the damage is essential in determining insurance coverage. Your homeowners insurance policy provides coverage for sudden and accidental water damage that originated from within your home, such as a pipe burst in the kitchen or if your water heater suddenly ruptured overnight. 

However, most traditional homeowners insurance policies do not include coverages if the cause of the damages originated from sewer line, drain, or failure of sump pump. 

To avoid these scenarios, you may want to consider adding the optional water backup and sump pump overflow coverage to your homeowners insurance. 

First and foremost, water backup coverage will cover the costs for emergency and temporary repairs to minimize further damage to your home. Mitigating further damage is especially important when it comes to water related damage.  

After mitigating the damage, the coverage will reimburse you for:

• Water discharge from a drain such as a toilet or sewer line in your basement. 
• Overflow from sump pump due to mechanical issues. 

Most insurance companies offer coverage limits ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. This is the amount that insurance companies will reimburse you to cover the costs resulting from a covered water backup claim. 

Deductible for a water backup claim is typically $500. This deductible is a separate deductible from your standard homeowners policy and you may select an amount that is more suitable for your financial situation. 

A deductible is the out-of-pocket expense you have to pay before your policy pays out in a claim. 

We recently had a customer that was awakened by a loud siren at 4 am Sunday morning, and turns out it was his sump pump failure alarm going off after three consecutive days of heavy rain.

After scrambling to figure out what to do next and moving his personal items, by 9 am, the water nevertheless flooded his basement. Fortunately he was able to get a restoration company on-site the same morning and stopped the water from causing further damage to his home. 

We filed a water backup claim for him on Monday and we were able to reimburse him for the costs to the restoration company as well as replacing the basement flooring. 

Depending on the coverage limit, water backup coverage can be added to your homeowners policy for an annual premium of $25 to $100.

Water backup coverage is an inexpensive optional coverage that can save thousands in the event of a sewer backup or sump overflow. For many older homes with aging service lines or have a basement with sump pump, water backup coverage is highly recommended.