When a natural disaster or other catastrophic event occurs and it damages your home, it can be scary and frustrating. Many people turn to their insurance companies to help them during this trying time. But when it comes to homeowners insurance, each policy is different. Some homeowners find themselves asking, does homeowners insurance cover porch damage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether or not your porch is covered by a homeowners insurance policy is determined by the type of policy you have and the insurance agency you use. Commonly, homeowners insurance covers the dwelling<\/a> structure and any structure physically attached or connected to the structure. This typically includes attached garages, porches, and decks. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your porch is attached to the home and is built properly, it will likely be considered to be part of your main dwelling which is covered by dwelling coverage of your homeowners insurance policy<\/a> just like a deck attached to your home<\/a> or an attached garage would. Some insurance policies like HO-1<\/a> and HO-2<\/a> cover specifically listed perils within the policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
More popular HO-3 and HO-5 policies will cover your porch against “all risks” on an open-peril basis. This means that your porch is covered from all risks except for the exclusions specifically listed in your policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exclusions also can differ by location and from insurer to insurer. For example, in coastal areas, wind and hail damage might be excluded from your homeowners insurance, and requires additional windstorm insurance to be covered. At the same time, in many other parts of the country, wind<\/a> and hail<\/a> are covered perils<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most common perils that are covered are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your porch is destroyed or damaged directly due to one of the perils covered by your homeowners insurance policy, then your insurance company will likely cover the cost to repair or replace the porch, less the deductible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The insurance company will send an adjuster out to your property to assess the damage, take some photos, and complete a report. This will be filed with the claim and help determine the amount of compensation the homeowner will get to cover the repairs and costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although insurance is very good, there are times when it will not cover damage or loss of a porch. These instances are often either included as an exclusion within the insurance policy itself or due to legal reasons. While some instances can be covered by insurance add-ons, others are not negotiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, if you built a porch without getting a permit, and the porch is not built to code or safety standards, then your insurance company will not provide coverage for the porch. This is because of its inherent risk. Insurance companies will only cover legally built structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, some insurance companies have specific exclusions listed in their policies. These exclusions allow for the insurance company not to cover the cost of repair or loss of a homeowner\u2019s property in specific circumstances. Some common exclusions are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we mentioned before wind and hail damage might need a separate windstorm insurance endorsement or a standalone policy if your home is located in one of the high-risk areas for wind and hail damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to protect yourself, your home, and your porch from these types of exclusions, you would need to seek additional coverage for your insurance policy (in a form of endorsements<\/a> and riders<\/a>). Not every insurance company<\/a> provides a full range of add-ons to cover every type of risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order to prevent a claim from being denied<\/a>, it is important to care for your porch regularly. When you notice basic maintenance needs to be performed, it is important to handle these tasks quickly. This will prevent further damage from occurring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In most cases, your porch will be covered if it is damaged in relation to a covered peril. It is always a good idea to double-check with your insurance, though, to verify your coverage in case of a claim. If you find your policy documents difficult to understand, you should call your insurance agent and ask them to explain what causes of damage to your porch are covered by your policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Homeowners insurance covers porch damage caused by many perils. The damage excluded from coverage depends on your policy. The list of excluded causes of damage can differ by location and from company to company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":181612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[120],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":120,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"katelynh","display_name":"Katelyn Huffman","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/katelynh.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/katelynh.jpeg"},"description":"Katelyn is a freelance copy editor and writer based in Massachusetts. She holds Bachelor's Degrees in Business Administration and Political Science, both from Fitchburg State University, as well as a Master's Degree in Public Administration from UMass Amherst. She has been writing and editing for a large range of clientele for over ten years. In her free time, Katelyn enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family.","first_name":"Katelyn","last_name":"Huffman","user_url":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181611"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeownersinsurancecover.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=181611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}