State Farm homeowners insurance is one of the most popular homeowner insurance agencies in the country. If you find yourself in the midst of an extreme storm, and notice a roof leak, will your State Farm insurance cover the cost of repairs and damage? The answer is yes, but there are qualifying and disqualifying factors. Like most homeowner insurances, negligence is a major disqualifying factor. If your roof is leaking because you haven’t properly maintained it, such as not having it inspected to make sure that the integrity hasn’t been compromised, or neglecting to fix a simple leak before it turned into a major damaging issue, State Farm will likely not cover leak repairs and the resulting water damage from the leak.
On the other hand, if you regularly maintain your roof, and have documented evidence showing a good faith effort at keeping your roof maintained, then it is likely that State Farm will cover the cost of repairs and damage.
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All Homeowner Insurance Companies Evaluate Claims in Terms of Perils
When any home insurance company is evaluating a claim, whether or not they accept it depends on whether the damage is caused by a covered peril. A peril is any event that can cause damage to your property. All homeowners insurance policies will make a distinction between covered and uncovered perils.
What perils are covered or uncovered depends on what type of insurance policy you have, and what it is that has been damaged. Most modern home insurance policies are either HO-3 or HO-5. With an HO-3 policy, your main house and other structures are protected against all perils, except those explicitly named as being uncovered, while your personal possessions inside your house will only be covered by perils explicitly named in a list. This means that your possessions are left with far fewer protections than your actual house itself.
With HO-5 insurance, your personal property receives the same kind of protection as your house, ensuring that all of your possessions are fully covered. The monetary extent of coverage is also often higher with HO-5 insurance, compared to an HO-3. Naturally, an HO-5 insurance policy will cost more than an HO-3 policy will.
State Farm Insurance Will Generally Cover Water Damage to Your Roof
Generally, when it comes to roofing damage due to a leak, you can expect a State Farm homeowner insurance policy to cover it. However, it is not quite so simple. There are a variety of factors that can disqualify a claim. One of the most disqualifying factors is negligence. If your roof had prior damage that was not repaired or if it hasn’t been regularly inspected and properly maintained, then State Farm may reject the claim. State Farm may also reject some or all of a claim if the area of damage coincides with damage due to an uncovered cause.
For example, if you have a termite infestation that has weakened your roof which allowed for a leak to occur, or if you have multiple roof leaks in one area and some of it is caused by an infestation, then State Farm may cover fewer damages, or no damage at all if it can be hard to discern the cause of damage. A similar situation can happen with mold: if mold has weakened the structure of your roof and allowed a leak and the mold could have been prevented by the homeowner, then some or all of your claims will be rejected.
Even in These Situations, Claims Can Still Be Accepted
It may be worth it to try and make claims, even if elements that are usually not covered by your insurance are present. Sometimes, these can be covered depending on whether the proximate cause is covered. A proximate cause is insurance-speak for the primary cause. If you regularly examine your roof, and a leak happens after a particularly violent storm which then allows mold to infect your ceiling, insurance might cover the cost of repairing the roof and any other moldy parts, as the leak (which is covered) will be considered the proximate cause.
Unfortunately, things are rarely simple when it comes to insurance claims. As long as you take good care of your property, and make a good-faith effort to maintain your roofing, you can expect your State Farm insurance to cover leak damage.
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