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Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Foundation Repair?

Anyone who has ever had to manage flood damage with their insurance company knows what a headache their fine print can be.

So that, then, raises a very important question. Will your insurance company cover Columbus foundation repair? The answer is yes, they absolutely will cover foundation crack repair in Ohio… unless they don’t.

That doesn’t seem to make much sense, right? Well, as with most things regarding insurance, it gets very complicated and there are a lot of specifics involved. Chapman Drainage can help break it down piece by piece.

Typical Homeowner’s Insurance Covers Foundation Repair… Sometimes

Any standard home insurance policy will include a type of coverage known as dwelling coverage. This is the part of your policy that covers your foundation and the rest of your home’s physical structure.

In theory, this homeowners insurance covers any damage to your home, and a crack in your foundation most definitely falls into that category.

But ultimately whether your homeowners insurance covers foundation crack repair in Columbus most likely boils down to what the cause of the foundation crack actually is. And that cause may not be obvious to the naked eye. It may be necessary to call your local foundation repair specialists to discover and provide evidence of what caused the foundation damage so that you can make a case to your insurance company.

When Do Insurance Companies Not Cover Foundation Repair?

Typical homeowners insurance policies cover everything except for things they explicitly say they don’t cover. And the two things that are usually explicitly excluded from coverage are the things most likely to cause foundation damage – floods and earthquakes.

In Ohio, earthquakes aren’t a huge concern, but flooding absolutely can be. You should see if your homeowners insurance policy covers flooding (it most likely doesn’t), and consider adding a separate flood insurance policy if you live in an area that may be prone to it. Otherwise, foundation crack repairs will not be covered by your insurance.

Other common sources of foundation damage that most insurance companies don’t cover include faulty construction, pressure from tree roots, and natural settling or shifting over time.

How to Beat the Insurance Companies

That last one is of particular importance, because shifting and settling in your foundation is often a result of needing drainage repair. If your yard isn’t draining properly and water is pooling around your home, it is putting pressure on your basement walls and cracks may form. 

Foundation damage from these sources may not be covered by insurance, so preventative drainage repair and maintenance is the best course of action.

In fact, most homeowners insurance policies cover what they call “sudden and accidental loss,” which means losses from natural or physical disasters that were out of your control, like a fire, tornado, HVAC malfunction, or vehicle driving into your home.

They do not cover damage from what they consider to be normal wear and tear, because they have an expectation that you are performing regular and routine maintenance on your home. Insurance companies absolutely will try to claim that foundation issues are your own fault and that they therefore do not need to cover them.

One way you can fight back against that is to make sure you are having regular drainage repair and maintenance done on your home and yard. This not only reduces the chances of you having to deal with foundation repair in the first place, but also gives you evidence that you were doing your due diligence as a homeowner to prevent that damage.

Call Chapman Drainage today, and let us make it so that you don’t need to worry about the whims of your homeowners insurance company.