5 Surprising Claims Covered by Home Insurance

Home insurance isn’t exactly anyone’s favourite topic – but it can get a little more interesting when you read about all the strange claims that are actually covered by your policy. Dog bites? Mostly, yep. A frozen chunk of sewage falling from the sky? Yes! Read on for five of the most surprising claims that may be covered by your home insurance policy.

You drive a golf ball into your neighbour’s window.

 Avid golfer? Maybe you like to practice your shot in your own backyard or out on the front lawn. When you give the ball a slice, it goes in the wrong direction and shatters your neighbour’s window. Maybe it even hits them directly, giving them a nice bump and a serious concussion. Your home insurance will cover instances like these, protecting you from the damages you caused to your neighbour’s property in addition to their medical bills. It may also cover you if you cause the same injury or damages while at the golfing range – or even the golfing range in Costa Rica, because your home insurance covers you anywhere in the world.

Frozen food spoilage due to power outage.

An unexpected storm occurs and knocks out your power. You and your family are equipped with an emergency kit, bottled water, flashlights, and blankets, but you failed to consider what would happen to the contents of your refrigerator and freezer. The power outage has caused all your frozen food to thaw and spoil. Luckily, your home insurance includes protection for the food contained in your freezers and located on your premise and will cover them for spoilage as a result of mechanical breakdown or unexpected power outage.

Unexpected air droppings.

This is actually based on a true scenario where an Ontario home made a claim alleging that a chunk of frozen sewage from a plane passing overhead caused a hole in the home of a resident. The damages caused thousands of dollars, but the resident’s home insurance covered the expenses. Fortunately, most standard home insurance policies will cover damages due to “falling objects” – even icy sewage from planes flying overhead!

Your dog bites a visitor.

Did you know that if your elderly (and sometimes grouchy!) schnauzer bites someone whose dropping off a package at your property, and that person sues for damages, your home insurance would cover you? This could be for any reason – and even if the person was aggravating the dog beforehand.

We hesitate to say “all breeds of dogs will be covered,” specifically because bites from some dog breeds, such as Rottweilers or Doberman Pinschers, may not be covered. This is due to the bite risk associated with the breed, not necessarily the individual dog (although a dog of any breed with a bite history may be denied coverage.) You should disclose the adoption of any new pet to your insurance provider to be sure that you have coverage for that animal.

A car smashes through your home.

This isn’t one anyone likes to think too in-depth about, but a vehicle crashing into your home and causing significant damages is covered by your home insurance. If the crash causes a fire or injuries, that is also covered. Generally, the driver’s third-party liability will cover damages to the home (and injuries), but only up until that policy’s limit. When it runs out, the remainder of the costs will be covered by your home insurance so long as you have all-perils coverage.

Just remember – too many claims isn’t a good thing.

While home insurance is always around as a backup plan, it’s supposed to be just that: a backup plan. While, technically, if you spilled wine on your new white couch, you could make a claim (and there’s a chance it’ll actually be accepted!), you should avoid making too many unnecessary claims. Repeated claims may not seem like a bad thing at first, but they will look bad if you are trying to get insured again in the future and your prospective new provider sees a large list of claims.

Not to mention that a large frequency of claims can be costly. While home insurance companies won’t determine your “at-fault” percentage like a car insurance company might, but many claims (especially those made in the last three years) will still cause your insurance premiums to rise in addition to the fact that you will have to pay a deductible for every claim you submit.

If you are unsure about whether it makes sense to put a claim through, discuss it with your friendly Excalibur home insurance broker. They can give you insight on whether you’ll save money, if it’ll hurt your ability to be insured later down the road, and if it will overall impact your premiums.