Water Damage ~ is flood excluded in a Homeowners policy?

Water Damage ~ is flood excluded in a Homeowners policy?

 
The typical Homeowners (HO-3) policy, under SECTION I – PROPERTY EXCLUSIONS,  excludes “water damage” caused by:

(1)  Flood, surface water, waves, tidal water, tsunami, seiche, overflow of a body of water, storm surge or spray from any of these, whether or not driven by wind, including hurricane or similar storm.
(2)  release of water held by a dam, levee, dike or by a water or flood control device or structure.

There are two primary reasons it is necessary to exclude “flood” from a homeowners policy:

• Flood losses are often devastating natural disasters that cause more property losses than any individual insurance company can financially withstand.
• Most surface water losses can be prevented with proper landscaping of a property that drains water away from structures.   If these losses were covered, property owners would not go to the expense of preventative landscaping for the extreme weather events that occur in long cycles – like every ten, twenty or thirty years.  

National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)If your property is located in a floodplain and your community participates in the NFIP, you can purchase flood insurance coverage. Your lender may require flood insurance as a condition of your loan.  The NFIP is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which works closely with nearly 90 private insurance companies to offer flood insurance to property owners and renters through authorized property and casualty insurance agents.

Some insurers (called Wright Your Own or WYO insurers) are authorized to offer NFIP flood insurance. Rates are set and do not differ from company to company or agent to agent. These rates depend on many factors, which include the age and type of construction of your home, along with your building's level of risk for flood loss.