The Crackman, Rich Comeras, as a public service, shares common questions that homeowners have regarding a wide range of homeowner insurance coverages. Today he is joined by his friend, Peter Marshall, from Marshall Insurance where they discuss: IS A HOME’S FOUNDATION DAMAGED BY LIGHTNING COVERED BY INSURANCE?
Rich: Hi, this is Rich from A1 Foundation Crack Repair with my friend, Peter Marshall from Marshall Insurance. And I’ve been in the business for over 25 years, I’ve probably seen about 8 or 10 of these situations where a house was struck by lightning, and the lightning bolt came down through the house, to the foundation, and cracked it. Now Peter, if that happens, is a person covered under a regular homeowner’s insurance?
Peter: Typically, regarding homeowner’s insurance, when you hear lightning, yes. Whatever the loss is, whatever the damage is, it’s going to be covered, and that is true for the foundation as well. The foundation is limited as far as what it is covered against. For example, settling, shrinking, things like that, bulging, cracks that develop over time from settling, that’s not going to be covered. Property insurance is really designed for sudden and accidental types of losses. So, anything that occurs over time, which, foundations especially are subject to being underground most of the time, is not going to be covered. But something sudden and accidental, like lightning is going to be covered.
Rich: I do see also occasionally, a car going out of control and hitting a foundation and causing damage. So that’s covered, isn’t it?
Peter: It is, yes. And if the person driving the car is not the homeowner, it would be that person’s auto insurance, their liability on their auto that would pay for it. If the homeowner drives into their own house, yeah it would still be covered, subject to their property deductible.
Rich: Peter, very interesting to know and I hope nobody runs into this problem. But if you do, there’s a foundation company that I know that can take care of it, A1 Foundation Crack Repair. Thank you very much.
If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation repair and waterproofing topics, please visit
A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call Rich at (866) 929-3171. Or you can email rich at info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for watching and keep that basement dry.