We agents spend all day, every day talking to current and prospective customers about coverage. Often, we get asked if the coverages we recommend have ever been used. Not only are they used, but sometimes by us personally! Unfortunately, insurance agents are not immune to claims situations, and I’d like to humbly share one of mine today.
Let me take you on a journey that started back in 2019…
In the summer of 2019, my partner and I moved from Fayetteville, AR to Little Rock. We were both excited for the move, but the home buying process had proved daunting. We spent about four months searching for our perfect home (we’re lucky our realtor still speaks to us). We were set on finding an older home, one with the personality and charm that couldn’t be found in new construction. We eventually settled on a house built in 1951. It needed some sprucing up, sure, but there were no immediate concerns… at least, as far as we believed at the time.
Fast forward a few months…
Just a couple weeks after the world shut down in March of 2020, we were at home prepping dinner. We’d just started a new load of laundry (this was early into COVID – we hadn’t completely given up on a clean home yet), when all of the sudden, we saw water erupting out of our front yard. This, obviously, was a shock, and panic shortly ensued. After a plumber made an emergency call to our home, we were told the grave news: our main sewer line had collapsed.
Now, what many people don’t realize is that while there are a number of underground utility and service lines that run into our homes from the street, these lines aren’t automatically covered under a standard homeowners insurance policy. Some insurance companies offer “service/ buried utility line” endorsements for an additional cost, which can cover damages or breaks to the lines between the street and home. This can be especially handy to have if you live in an older home and aren’t sure of the age or condition of these lines.
Fortunately, my experience as an insurance agent had equipped me with an intense level of paranoia, so when purchasing homeowners insurance, I made sure to include all of the add-on’s, like service line coverage. This meant that my homeowners insurance would cover the cost of replacing our collapsed sewer line, a project that ended up totaling almost $8,000.
After a week of two minute showers and no laundry (a convenient time, all things considered, to be stuck at home), our new sewer line had been installed, and we were back to business as usual! And instead of forking over $8,000, all we ultimately paid was our $200 coverage deductible.
If you are interested in learning more about service line coverage and/or if your homeowners insurance company offers it, please reach out to our staff. We would love to help!
Signing off,
