Does My Home Insurance Cover a Flood?

The answer is yes and no – it depends on how the flood happened. Do you know if your home insurance covers a flood due to a sewer back-up? What if a storm causes water to seep into your basement – is that covered? No matter where the water comes from, a flooded basement is a costly clean-up, so here’s what you need to know about protecting your home.

Protection Against Different Types of Floods

If a widespread flood happens, it may be serious enough for our provincial or federal government to offer assistance but those are fairly rare occurrences and there is certainly no guarantee of government assistance.

For a more local flood that affects your house alone or maybe some neighbours as well, you will be dealing with the clean-up on your own. Hopefully you will get help from your insurer too but that depends on the cause of the flood as follows:

• Sewer Back-up: this is a very unpleasant flood to handle and it is not covered by standard home insurance. Optional protection for sewer backup can be added to your policy.
• Burst Water Pipe: if one of your plumbing pipes should burst or an appliance leak in your home, the damage is covered by most home insurance policies.
• Frozen Water Pipe: if a water line freezes due to winter weather, this cause of flooding may not covered because it is preventable and a normal part of home maintenance.
• Flooding Due to Heavy Rain or Storm Damage: when a rainstorm causes water to seep into your basement or a hailstorm makes a hole in your roof letting rain in, these situations are usually covered by home insurance.
• Overland Flooding: when storms cause rivers, ponds and lakes to overflow flooding the area, protection for this is not usually part of a standard policy. An optional coverage for overland flooding has recently become available.
• Flooding When You’re Away: If you’re away for days or on vacation, you need to have your house checked regularly in order to maintain coverage from your home insurance policy.

Home Insurance and Flood Protection Options

Our home insurance experts can confirm what flood protection you already have and what optional protection you might want to consider. For free advice and no obligation quotes, contact Mitchell & Whale Insurance Brokers at 1-800-731-2228 or email us at info@mitchellwhale.com. We’d be happy to help you.