When dealing with insurance, getting a concrete “yes or no” answer is often difficult. We say this because the insurance market offers various degrees of coverage. Moreover, each insurer, whether big or small, operates differently.
The same goes for sinkhole coverage in your homeowners insurance policy. While getting coverage for sinkholes on the property depends on the insurance company, you also need to take your state and city into account.
We say this because many homeowners invest in sinkhole insurance to ensure they’re covered. This especially applies to homeowners residing in regions that are notorious for sinkholes. Some of these places include Kentucky, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Keep on reading to find out whether your homeowners insurance will cover a sinkhole and how you can protect your home.
When Does Homeowners Insurance Cover a Sinkhole?
In many cases, if residents don’t have any sinkhole insurance, the homeowners insurance policy covers it. In general, homeowners need to meet these criteria to obtain coverage for sinkholes.
- A sudden and abrupt collapse or crumble of the ground cover.
- A crack or depression on the ground that’s visible.
- There’s massive structural damage to the home that includes its foundation.
- Authorities order an evacuation of a home due to it being unsafe.
If you fail to fulfill this criteria, you will most likely not get sinkhole coverage in your typical homeowners insurance policy that saddles the cost of repairing damages or fixing the sinkhole. That is why it’s always best to speak to your insurer to get a definitive answer on what your policy covers.
How Can You Protect Your Home From a Sinkhole?
Sinkholes are challenging to detect and develop slowly over time before appearing suddenly. If your biggest concern is to have a sinkhole on the property, adding sinkhole coverage to the insurance policy is the right solution to prevent the property from the financial consequences that sinkhole damage may cause.
Keep in mind that adding sinkhole protection to your policy is an additional cost if the insurance company offers this add-on.
Some states like Tennessee and Florida require home insurers to provide optional sinkhole coverage. It may include a home’s foundation cost to repair or stabilize the ground beneath it.
Summing Up
All in all, some sinkholes often take time to visibly damage or depress the property’s ground, while others may collapse within seconds. Thus, the sooner you purchase this add-on for your home, the sooner you prevent the catastrophic damage. Note, your homeowners insurance policy doesn’t cover sinkhole damage, and you’ll need to purchase it if you want it.
Links
https://www.policygenius.com/homeowners-insurance/does-homeowners-insurance-cover-sinkholes
https://www.esogrepair.com/articles/are-sinkholes-covered-by-homeowners-insurance/