Mold can cause significant damage to your house and can also impact your family’s health. If you discover mold in your home, you should have professionals remove it and make any necessary repairs. Depending on the circumstances, your homeowners insurance may or may not cover the bill.
How Homeowners Insurance Applies to Mold Damage
The cause of the mold is a critical factor that will determine whether or not repairs will be covered. Your homeowners policy will cover damage related to certain perils and will specifically exclude others. In general, homeowners insurance covers sudden and accidental damage, but not damage that could have been prevented with routine maintenance and repairs.
If, for example, your roof is damaged in a storm, then water gets into your house and causes mold, your homeowners insurance will likely pay for mold remediation. It may also cover mold damage that’s caused by a burst pipe or a malfunctioning water heater. If your house catches fire (a covered peril) and the water that firefighters use to put out the fire causes mold, your policy should cover it.
Your insurance won’t cover mold damage that occurred because you neglected maintenance or failed to make necessary repairs. If your roof is damaged in a storm, but the roof was already in poor condition because you didn’t have it inspected for years or you knew about a problem but ignored it, your homeowners insurance company will most likely deny your claim for roof damage and mold removal.
A standard homeowners insurance policy doesn’t cover flooding. If you have mold in your house because your neighborhood flooded in a storm, it won’t be covered, unless you have separate flood insurance.
Your homeowners insurance policy may limit coverage for mold damage to a specific dollar amount. That may be significantly less than the total cost of mold remediation.
Depending on the way your policy is written and the company’s procedures, it may combine mold damage and the original cause of the damage in one claim or it may treat them as separate claims. If the company processes the damage as two claims, you may have to pay two deductibles.
What to Do If Your House Has Water Damage
Contact your homeowners insurance company as soon as possible to file a claim related to water damage. Even if the issue doesn’t appear to be significant at first glance, there may be damage that you can’t see behind walls and cabinets and under floors. If you wait too long to file a claim, it may be denied, even if the mold and other damage are related to a covered peril.
Take photos or videos of the damage to your home and belongings. Don’t begin to make repairs or discard damaged belongings until an insurance adjuster visits your house. The adjuster will have to view and document everything to process your claim.
