Stucco is a textured plastic or cement material used to decorate the exterior of a home. This material is used on residential and commercial buildings all over the United States, but it’s very popular in warm states like Florida due to its insulation properties. The material can keep the home cool during the warm months and warm during the cold months. The recent development of EIFS (Exterior Insulation & Finish Systems) leads to the widespread use of stucco for homes. The main problem is that insurance won’t treat all installations the same and if you run into coverage problems, you never know how your insurance is going to react to it. This guide will focus on the way homeowners insurance handles stucco claims.
Does homeowners insurance cover stucco damage? Yes, homeowners insurance covers stucco damage such as water stains, mold, and blisters. The only condition is that the material was installed by a licensed EIFS contractor and that the damage occurred after the policy was purchased. The company in charge of installing your stucco material must be licensed for EIFS installations in your state and you can’t file for damage that existed prior to purchasing the homeowners policy. If the damage was present 6 months ago, and you purchased your HO-3 policy 3 months ago, you won’t be covered.
Homeowners insurance covers damages to your dwelling as a result of a number of perils named in your homeowners policy including things such as fire, hail, windstorm, vandals, aircraft/vehicle damage, smoke damage, and theft but water damage is not on the list.
Generally, when you develop a stucco problem, it is likely water-related to being poorly installed. But each home insurance carrier has different guidelines as to how they handle their policies and how they view claims, so it’s very important to speak with your insurance carrier to find out specifically what your carrier’s guidelines are for your particular plan as far as stucco damage.
What Can Go Wrong With Stucco
Stucco is a very reliable and sturdy insulator. The main problem with stucco is that the installation process can unfold in many different ways, some of which leave it vulnerable to damage. Example: If the contractor did a slipshod application of this material, the smallest problem like a crack can turn into a major structural issue for your home.
These tiny mistakes that are caused by poor installations of the material can end up costing tens of thousands of dollars. If you tried to save money on installation and hired cheap, unlicensed labor you’ll likely deal with serious issues in the future. Water damage is the most common and easily noticeable form of stucco damage.
The following is a list of signs that something is wrong with your stucco insulation:
- Water leaks forming near openings such as doors, roofs, and windows.
- Visible damage such as blisters/cracks and stains on different parts of the wall.
- Mold. If you have mold/mildew growth on the walls this is a sign that the walls are not insulating property and they’re soaking up moisture. This can potentially escalate to a health issue.
- Vermin infestations. You might start to notice the presence of insects and pests increasing in your home because they can pour in once there’s cracks in the walls.
Repairing the damage to the stucco insulation can easily cost thousands of dollars because you’ll have to pay for removal services, new materials, and labor costs. To cut costs you can purchase the new material yourself. Most of these issues occur from a poor installation and in rare cases it’s the age of the material. In some cases, the insurance company will pay for the damage and you can get new insulation without paying a cent.
Insurance Will Cover Stucco Damage (Under These Conditions)
Insurance can cover stucco insulation damage under certain conditions. There is no single answer for all homeowners because different insurance companies impose different requirements. The one thing we know for certain is that all homeowners insurance policies will pay for stucco damage if you can provide evidence that the original installation was carried out by a licensed EIFS professional.
- If your EIFS processional is licensed and certified in your state, you will be covered for all damages by homeowners insurance. This is more so the case if EIFS distributors in your area affirm the contractor who installed your insulation. Insurance will reject your claim if the professional who installed your stucco insulator was not licensed and trained in stucco application.
Note: Homeowners insurance might not help you if your problem is related to water damage as a result of a bad stucco installation. Even if you hire a licensed stucco professional to install it in your home, you must double-check to make sure your policy includes water damage. This is usually offered as a separate rider/endorsement on most policies in Florida because the default policy only covers you for perils like fire, lightning, vandalism, and falling objects. Make sure water damage is included, otherwise you won’t receive any coverage.
The bottom line is that if you want to get paid out for stucco damage in your home, you must meet the following criteria:
- Provide evidence you hired a licensed Stucco professional to install it at your home.
- Provide evidence the damage is new and that it didn’t exist in your home before you purchased the insurance policy.
- Provide evidence of the damage. For instance, if you have a mold problem you must bring photographic evidence.
The type of damage is also going to affect the company’s decision to approve or deny your claim. If the damage is related to water leaks, your claim might be rejected on the grounds the insurance policy does not cover water damage. Self-applied installations will also be automatically rejected. Gather documentation to prove you had a professional installation and that a bad installation was not responsible for the damage.
Legal Action If Insurance Denies Your Claim
Most stucco claims are rejected on grounds of a bad installation if you can’t provide evidence you hired a licensed professional. If you did hire a licensed professional, you will easily get paid out by insurance. Don’t lose hope if your claim is rejected because you still have legal avenues to explore. We recommend hiring a lawyer to sue the builder or contractor if their stucco installation caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to your home.
You can hold a contractor liable for bad work on your home and use their liability insurance to pay for your damage. Most contractors have millions of dollars worth of liability insurance and won’t have problems paying it out if you can prove their installation was not up to par. If you bought a brand new home and don’t know who installed the stucco, you can sue the builder. Hire a lawyer who can prove the builder was negligent in the installation.
Alternatively, you have the option to sue the insurance company and challenge their decision legally. This action should only be pursued if you hired a licensed professional to install your stucco and they deny your legitimate claim. You can present evidence in the courts that your installation was carried out by a professional and make them pay for the damages.
What Is Stucco?
Stucco is a type of exterior siding that folks choose for their homes which has been in use since the beginning of the 1900s. It is made up of limestone, cement, and silica which forms a thin, decorative sheet over the house forming a veil of insulation throughout the year. This type of application is popular among homeowners looking for an affordable yet attractive substitute to brick or vinyl. The problem with stucco is, if installed incorrectly, it can soak up too much moisture as it is a natural and porous product. This over absorption can cause extensive and expensive damages to the structure.
Damage Caused By Faultily Installed Stucco
Poorly installed stucco can raise thousands of dollars worth of damages for homeowners. There are numerous housing developments throughout the United States where contractors used stucco as what they felt would be a speedy construction process and they did so in a poor manner leaving the homeowners with issues including:
- Elevated humidity levels that caused damages to personal property as well as health issues.
- Insect and pest infestations.
- Mildew and mold growth with which spores could be inhaled causing ailments and illness.
- Water damages on ceilings and walls as well as dry rot in wooden fixtures throughout causing unsafe conditions.
Situations such as these would leave any homeowner to believe that their home insurance plan would reimburse without any question, but that is not necessarily the case.
Is Stucco Damage Covered?
A lot of times the answer to whether homeowners insurance will cover stucco damage goes into more questions, e.g. who was the contractor who applied the stucco, were they certified and licensed? Can that contractor be held liable, did they do a poor job? It also depends on what kind of damage there is to the stucco – is it water damage?
If this is work that you had done as a home improvement or renovation and it wasn’t done by a certified, licensed contractor, your provider will likely not cover the damages, particularly water damage. That’s not a peril that is typically covered.
If you find damage with stucco during an inspection of the home when you go to purchase or shortly after having it installed by a certified, licensed professional, home insurance will probably take a claim. It’s really a gamble depending on the carrier and the situation.
The ideal scenario in this instance is your other options as opposed to home insurance. The home carriers oftentimes can’t cover it simply because there is another party who is actually responsible to reimburse. That would be the contractor. This is why it would be crucial to go over the contract that you sign with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that the contractor’s insurance is going to cover any mistakes they make and any shoddy work that gets done.
Your home insurance rep can help you put a claim against the contractor’s insurance company and guide you in that way as can an attorney. Rather than worrying about using your insurance or paying out of your pocket, you should go where the responsibility lies.
