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Bryant Asset Protection
PO Box 219
1280 New Scotland Road
Slingerlands NY 12159
Ph: (518) 439-1141
Fx: (518) 475-0030
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There are few sights as dismaying as descending the basement stairs to find your basement floor covered with inches or feet of water. That means, of course, that everything down there including your furnace, hot water heater, electrical apparatus and even family keepsakes are potentially damaged beyond repair. Got a finished basement or no basement at all? Worse still.
Water can enter your home from both the outside and the inside of the building. The disastrous result is the same, but the source of that water determines whether or not your current insurance policies cover any losses you may suffer from water damage.
Two types of insurance policies are available to protect us from water damage and each has a distinctly different purpose, even though they are commonly confused by many homeowners. The first is usually called “water backup” and the second is “flood insurance”. You should know the difference and may consider each or both to protect your family home, if circumstances warrant.
Generally speaking, water backup is damage caused by water that enters the home from below the surface of the ground, usually through the building’s plumbing or sewage systems.
Heavy rains can trigger a water backup. A storm or sanitary sewer backs up into your home, usually coming in through the sump well, French drains around your home, washtubs or toilets in the basement. Sump pump failures (if you have one) normally occur from power outages or mechanical failures. Sump pumps run on electricity and during a severe storm, the power may be knocked out just when you need it most. The result could be damage from the backed up water.
Another form of water backup damage might include a septic tank backup from a clogged or broken line or a too-full tank resulting in raw sewage being spilled back into the home. Homeowners with private septic systems should regularly consult an expert to evaluate the “status” of their tanks and have them pumped out as necessary to avoid this messy possibility.
Water backup insurance is protection that is usually purchased as an add-on (rider) to the standard homeowner’s policy, although some enhanced homeowner policies do feature some form of water backup provisions. A number of homeowners are unaware of and do not carry this form of protection only to be unpleasantly surprised when something very bad happens inside the home from water. You will be glad to know that water backup riders are very reasonable in cost, generally less than $50 per year, depending on the amount of coverage you choose.
Check with your insurance agent to see if water backup protection is part of your policy. If not, Bryant Asset Protection strongly recommends that you consider this coverage in order to be fully protected. Please see the request form below.
Flood incidents occur when damage occurs from water that enters or damages the home usually from above the surface of the ground. Most of us are familiar with of weather-related occurrences such as hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal, river, stream and lake floods. Snow melt, public water mishaps and swimming pools can also trigger flood damage.
Homeowner policies do not cover prevention, damage to the home or cleanup costs from this kind of incident. Flood insurance in the United States is underwritten by the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), but is available through major companies represented by Bryant Asset. For assistance in getting a quote on flood insurance, please fill out the form below.
