Insurance Coverage For Mud Damage To Your Home
A standard homeowner's insurance policy doesn't cover every kind of natural disaster, including mud that damages your home. Damages due to ground movements caused by flooding, earthquakes, or heavy rains usually require a separate policy or a special rider to your current homeowner's policy that extends your coverage.
Contents Insurance
Some insurance companies offer special riders to cover the contents of your home if the loss is related to some type of earth movement. However, contents coverage won't pay for structural damage to your home. There also may be limits on the coverage for your contents.
Flood Insurance
Although you can take out a separate flood insurance policy to cover damage from mudflow, losses due to mudslides are usually excluded even from flood coverage. The damage mud causes to your home may look no different to you, but insurance companies are careful to distinguish between mudflow and mudslides.
Flood insurance will cover the losses to your property if the damage is due to muddy water when a river, stream, or creek overflows its banks. If the mud in your home drips off the shovel when you scoop it up, you're in luck. Otherwise, your flood insurance policy likely won't pay for any of the damage.
Difference Between Mudflow and a Mudslide
Even though either mudflow or a mudslide can be the result of heavy rains or rapid snow melts, mudflows are more watery. When water flows across land that is normally dry, it picks up soil, which makes the water muddy.
A mudslide is caused by ground movement rather than flooding. When it comes to insurance payouts, "flow" is the key word. Like a mudslide, mudflow can move earth, rock, and debris downhill. Mudflow is different in that water then carries the soil and rock across land.
The same as mudflow, a mudslide usually occurs following periods of heavy rain. When the ground becomes saturated with water, it can slide and travel down a steep slope. On its way, it usually picks up speed and debris. Depending on how fast it's traveling, a mudslide is more likely than mudflow to damage the structure of your home. But unless you have special mudslide insurance, your home probably isn't covered.
In some cases, flood insurance may cover damage from a mudslide. For example, if a dam bursts and washes away a hill near your home, flood waters may carry the mud onto your property. Based on the wording of your policy, your flood insurance may pay.
Surplus Line Insurance
Another option is to buy a difference in conditions policy that covers your home and its contents in the event of a landslide or mudslide -- perils your standard homeowner's policy excludes. However, these policies can be expensive and still may not cover your full loss. You also have to pay a higher deductible since these special policies generally pay toward catastrophic losses.
Insurance that covers mudslides is available through a surplus lines carrier. Surplus lines insurers accept risks that standard insurance companies don't. The insurers write policies for unusual risks or risks that would cost standard insurers too much money if an event occurs.
For more information, contact C R Gregory Insurance Inc. or a similar company.