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What To Do In The Event Of A Plumbing Leak: A Step-by-Step Guide
Imagine coming home after a long day, only to find a pool of water on your kitchen floor. A pipe under the sink has sprung a leak and the situation seems to be escalating by the second. The immediate reaction might be panic, but knowing exactly what steps to take in such a situation can help prevent further damage and ensure your safety.
Back up, overflow, leak, or flood: What's the difference?
If you've had damage in your home caused by water, it literally pays to know the difference in the words you use.
Many homeowners have found themselves in the unfortunate position of discovering water in their home causing damage. A homeowner with this type of damage may have said "my home is flooded!" or "I had a back up," or "there's sewage everywhere!"
These words have different meanings to different people and unfortunately, using them in the wrong way can mean the difference in whether or not coverage is afforded for your claim.
It's best to let an experienced public adjuster like the ones at VIP Adjusting guide you through this potential minefield, but here are the basics of what you might need to know if you've found yourself with water damage.
What types of damage does the typical insurance policy cover?
The two most common types of insurance policies for homeowners in Florida are HO-3 and DP-3 policies, known as "all risk" insurance policies. These types of insurance policies usually cover all sudden and accidental damage, and then reduce that coverage through various exclusions. All-risk insurance policies normally cover water damage caused by plumbing leaks, and access to repair the damaged plumbing.
Some HO-3 and DP-3 policies and some insurance companies have exclusions for all types of water damage, including plumbing leaks, or may have a cap on plumbing leaks with a special limit of liability, usually $5,000 or $10,000. For the purposes of this article, we are assuming these caps or exclusions are not in place.
A less common insurance policy in Florida, even though it's often not much cheaper, is an HO-8 policy, which works in the opposite way of an all-risk policy. An HO-8 policy is often referred to as a "named perils" policy. Instead of starting with all sudden and accidental, or "fortuitous" losses, an HO-8 policy starts with no coverage and adds in only certain named perils, usually wind and hail, civil commotion and riot, smoke, aircraft, vehicles, volcano, explosion, vandalism and theft. Those losses are then even further excluded. This type of policy also does not cover plumbing leaks, at all.
So where does that leave us with our water damage? What's a back up? What's an overflow? What's a leak? What's a flood? Which of them do my insurance policy cover if I have water damage?
Water damage caused by "back ups"
My toilet backed up and disgusting water is everywhere causing damage. Surely that's a "back up," right? Nope! A leak from your toilet is actually covered under an all-risk policy, whether there was a plumbing break or failure, or even if you just had a clog.
The language that excludes a "back up" in an insurance policy often reads "We [the insurance company] do not cover water damage caused by water which backs up through sewers or drains..."
Well, what about if water backs up from the drain in my sink or tub? Surely THAT is a "back up" then? Nope, wrong again.
Florida's courts, in analyzing the language of insurance policy have held that back ups of sewers or drains are damages caused by water that has backed up from a leak originating off the property. The sewer is the ultimate destination of water that leaves your property, so a failure of plumbing off the property, or water coming from the actual sewer is a "back up" that wouldn't be covered under the insurance policy. The same goes for drains. A storm drain in the street would be a "drain" under your insurance policy, or perhaps, a drainage ditch would be a drain that would be excluded.
Otherwise, your insurance policy is meant to cover losses caused by water accidentally escaping from plumbing systems and appliances in your home, without distinguishing whether that water is coming or going.
Water damage caused by an "overflow"
Along the same lines of water damage caused by a back up is water damage caused by an overflow. Overflows are often referenced in an insurance policy as water which overflows from a sump pump. If you have a pump meant to keep water out of your home and it is overpowered or overwhelmed, then water will have been deemed to "overflow." The same would hold true for exterior drains. If they've overflowed and result in water that ends up in your house, that would normally be excluded under your insurance policy.
An overflow is not, however, when water escapes from your toilet, your sink, or your tub. These are plumbing leaks and would be covered under a standard all-risk policy.
Water damage caused by a "leak"
Plumbing leaks are a bit of a catch-all coverage under your all-risk insurance policy, because they are sudden and accidental leaks. Air conditioner and HVAC leaks are covered like this, as well. Depending on the insurance company, some all-risk policies in Florida still cover roof leaks as well.
The provisions in the insurance policy often exclude repair to the system or appliance the water escaped from, meaning the repair to the plumbing, HVAC or roof is usually not covered, unless it was also damaged by a covered loss. If it failed because of old age, the system isn't covered, but if the roof was damaged by a hurricane, it is covered. The water, then, is what's often referred to as an "ensuing loss."
The all-risk policies that don't cover roof leaks have language that says something like it excludes damage caused by rain "unless the exterior of the building" is first damaged by either a "covered peril," or sometimes more narrowly and specifically by wind or hail.
Water damage caused by a "flood"
This is the term that trips up most homeowners. "My house was flooded." "I came home to a flood." Flood is not covered by standard homeowners insurance policies because "flood" is a very specific term for water, outside the home, on the ground covering more than a certain area of land. A rising river is a flood. Storm surge is a flood. Abnormally high tide is a flood. Rain water in a low lying area is a flood. The rain storm that carried Noah's ark was a flood.
An air conditioner leak is not a flood. A plumbing leak is not a flood. A roof leak is not a flood.
Because of this difference, and some further limiting language in insurance policies, pretty much any water on the ground outside the home is not covered. An abnormally wet ground from heavy rains that exerts pressure on a foundation, or poor drainage are not covered.
Flood insurance is usually a separate policy under the National Flood Insurance Program, administered by FEMA and the Federal Government.
If you've found yourself with water causing damage to your home in Tequesta, Jupiter, Hobe Sound, or anywhere else in Florida's Treasure Coast or Space Coast, it's best to consult with an experienced public adjuster like VIP Adjusting before your insurance company tries to trip you up in a recorded statement. Call today or contact us for a free claim evaluation.
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Plumbing Leak Insurance Claims: Save the damaged part!
If you have damage from a plumbing leak, keep the failed plumbing part from the repair
Plumbing leaks happen, and they cause damage. If you find yourself in that situation, your first instinct is never your impending insurance claim, it’s that there’s water everywhere, causing damage and you need it to stop.
Your insurance policy is a contract; a legal document. It requires you to perform certain actions, and when there’s a plumbing leak and water damage, it may seem like those actions are at odds with one another. You have to protect the property from further damage, mitigate the existing damages, preserve the evidence for the insurance company to inspect, and make sure not to prejudice the insurance company’s investigation.
Here’s how to balance all of those duties under your insurance policy:
Protect the property from further damage
If you’ve found water on your floor, you have to quickly diagnose the problem. There may be massive amounts of clean water coming from a supply line or a pressurized plumbing line causing damage. If that’s the case, turn off the main shutoff valve, typically found outside your home. Once the water supply is shut off, the ongoing damage will have stopped and you have time to call a plumber.
If you don’t know where the main water shutoff is, you might have no choice but to call a plumber while the water continues to leak and cause damage. Your insurance company may try to use this against you, depending on how extensive the water damages are. A diligent homeowner should find out where their water shut off is in advance of a problem like this.
If the water damage isn’t being caused by a supply line or other pressurized plumbing, it’s either being caused by a broken cast iron drain line, or other waste/sanitary plumbing, or an appliance, like a washing machine or dishwasher.
If the water on the floor causing damage is dirty or smells badly, it is likely coming from a broken cast iron drain line or appliance that carries dirty water. In that case, stop all appliances using water and refrain from using your showers and toilets until a handyman or plumber has been able to figure out what the problem is.
Once you’ve stopped the flow of water, take pictures. Take lots of pictures and document the conditions before any repair or other effort has started. Your insurance company requires that you document damages and now might be the best opportunity to preserve the conditions as they exist at the time of the leak.
Mitigate the existing damages
You’ve successfully stopped the supply of water that’s causing damage in your home, and at this point you may be waiting for a plumber, but you still have water that is soaking into the porous building materials in your home. Water is being absorbed by drywall, particle board, plywood, cabinets, vanities, laminate flooring or wood flooring, or even being absorbed into grout and mortar beneath your tile flooring. It could be clean water that causes staining and other damages, or it could be dirty water or sewage that requires special types of repair due to health and safety issues.
There is already some damage, but you can prevent it from getting worse. You can start yourself by using towels to soak up the water, and a shop vac if you have one, or a mop and bucket. Work on getting as much of the standing water up as possible. If you have more than one pair of hands, have someone take pictures of this process as well. If your towels are damaged cleaning up dirty water, you can claim these as part of your insurance claim.
Once you have a good handle on cleaning up the standing water, point some fans towards wet areas if you have them to help dry the damaged materials.
The reason you want to clean up water as best you can is because in as little as 48 hours, under the right conditions, mold can begin to form and spread, posing a health risk to you and your family. Most insurance policies also cap mold damages at a relatively low amount, and preventing the spread and growth of mold can save you potentially huge out of pocket expenses.
Water mitigation contractors
Depending on how much damage has been caused by the plumbing leak, and the type of water, you may also want to get in a special type of contractor that specializes in water mitigation.
This water mitigation contractor will have been trained in water clean up, both clean water and dirty water. We caution you again to take pictures before they start because this is when things can start to move quickly and get you in trouble with your insurance company.
Water mitigation contractors may cut holes in building materials like cabinets and drywall to assist fans in drying areas of damage, or have larger machines that extract water from inside wall cavities or other areas. These contractors may also remove significant areas of drywall, remove damaged cabinets, or other damaged materials. If at all possible, take photographs and ask that these materials not be discarded.
Your insurance policy requires that you show damaged items to the insurance company, and if, in their haste, a water mitigation contractor throws all this stuff away and there are no photographs, the insurance company may never know what was damaged, giving them grounds to deny your claim.
If you have a garage, keep the damaged materials there. If not, a storage shed, or outside protected from the elements as best as you can.
Preserve the evidence for the insurance company to inspect
In addition to requesting the water mitigation contractor to keep the damaged building materials (drywall, cabinets, etc.), the most important thing you can do is to save the failed plumbing part. As much as it is possible, save the damaged plumbing part.
If a supply line burst, get the broken copper pipe, or other plumbing material and keep it somewhere safe. The insurance company will want to verify what happened, and how. They may analyze it later in more detail or have an engineer verify that it is consistent with an accident and wasn’t purposely cut, or that there wasn’t some other type of insurance fraud.
If an appliance fails, keep the appliance somewhere it can be accessed. VIP Adjusting’s founder had an insurance claim related to a broken valve on a dishwasher. Six months later, the insurance company came and took the entire dishwasher to be kept as evidence while they pursued what’s called “subrogation” for indemnification against the dishwasher’s manufacturer.
The hardest failed plumbing part to save is a broken cast iron drain line. When cast iron plumbing fails, it becomes very brittle, and in order to get to it, you often have to dig a trench in the slab that can damage the cast iron line even further.
In this situation of damage caused by a cast iron drain line, it’s best to leave the line in place and let the insurance company do as much investigation as they want before you undertake any repair, as the alternative is very risky.
If you must proceed in addressing a cast iron drain line, first have a licensed plumber with a camera run it through the line and document by video all breaks in the line and mark them in the house with tape. Make sure you have a copy of this video before you do anything else.
In proceeding from there, when the floor is trenched, take photo or video of the area to prove it is the same area as the break from your video and get as much documentation of the broken cast iron plumbing as possible. If the cast iron line can be removed in a large piece, save it!
Don’t prejudice the insurance company’s investigation
This post is a very methodical description of what is an otherwise chaotic situation. You’ve had water damage your home. Your life has been turned upside down. You’ve spent money on plumbers and other contractors. You may have been unable to use some or all of your home’s plumbing system in the meantime. You might have had to move out of the home because the plumbing will be unusable for an extended period, or because the damage is too great. The last thing on your mind is your insurance claim, but it’s our first concern.
If you have done anything that allows the insurance company to question whether the loss happened exactly as you say, the insurance company can deny your claim outright, and they may be justified in doing so.
If you had water damage from a burst copper pipe and the plumber cut a hole in the wall, cut out a section of pipe that’s damaged and installs a new piece, but the broken pipe is discarded, how can the insurance company be sure someone didn’t spray the walls with a hose to try to get some money? This is why you need to preserve your evidence by saving the damaged plumbing parts.
Maybe you had a water mitigation contractor come in to perform drying services, and they did such a good job removing wet materials, there’s no evidence of damage remaining. How will the insurance company know there was any damage at all and a shady contractor didn’t just come in and cut out drywall to fake an insurance claim?
The scariest scenario is that you’ve had a failed cast iron drain line and can no longer prove it. Often times, between the trenching, flooring repairs, and significant areas of renovation required, these repairs of failed cast iron drain lines can exceed six-figures. If you can’t prove what happened in great detail, the insurance company may try to claim that even though you may have needed to replace this line, there is no coverage because there was no leak! We’ve seen it happen, and instead of getting fairly paid for your claim, a homeowner like this would be facing an uphill battle right from the start at a risk of not receiving a fair reimbursement for their claim.
A cautionary tale of a plumbing leak
One of the most absurd claims we’ve ever handled was for a homeowner that was very handy. In fact, the homeowner was an air conditioning repair man. He had owned a home for barely two weeks and upon arriving home from work discovered water pouring out of a light fixture in his kitchen, with the water originating from the second floor of his home.
Being as handy as he was, the homeowner turned off the water and waited for help from a friend while he cleaned up some of the water on his own. The water was clean, so he knew it was a broken supply line somewhere in his home.
Once he had his friend to help him, the friend turned on the water supply and the homeowner quickly realized the water was coming from a broken plastic tube from the wall to a toilet. He turned off the water to that toilet and localized the problem.
Now, here’s where our homeowner got himself into trouble. These plastic lines are brittle and break all the time, so he didn’t think it was a big deal. He went to a big-box hardware store, bought a nicer braided metal replacement in cash for about $5, replaced it, and threw the broken plastic one away.
The insurance company came to the home, couldn’t inspect the broken plastic plumbing to the toilet and sent an engineer to the property to assist them in denying the claim. The engineer, a paid shill from the insurance company said that even though the homeowner had owned the home less than a month, the big stain on the ceiling of his kitchen and damage to his kitchen cabinets was the result of years of water from people getting in and out of the shower in that upstairs bathroom, and dripping on the floor!
Because our client thought nothing of his insurance claim when he fixed the problem, he ended up having to proceed with several years worth of litigation in order to get paid for his claim.
VIP Adjusting’s public adjusters have seen all kinds of plumbing leak damage over the years and make sure to approach the situation from the perspective of your insurance claim, your potential recovery, and preservation in the event of litigation. If you’ve had water damage as a result of a plumbing leak, contact VIP Adjusting today so they can guide you through the claims process and assist you in documenting your damages and the conditions at your home.
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Cast Iron Pipe Class Action Lawsuit
What’s that TV Commercial for a “Class Action Lawsuit” all about?
You may have seen a commercial from a nationwide law firm that begins “if your home or commercial property was built before 1975,” there’s a good chance that it contains a cast iron plumbing system that has failed or is failing.
This is a true statement, BUT the commercial is highly misleading. It goes on to tout the website of that nationwide law firm that has only recently started handling property insurance claims, and makes you think you should be part of a class action lawsuit. The website, pipelawsuit[dot]com offers information on cast iron plumbing and insurance, with the words “class action” plastered all over the place, but nothing could be further from the truth.
What is a class action?
A class action is a special kind of lawsuit where one individual or a small group of individuals become certified as representatives of a larger group. In order to be recognized as a class, there needs to be one individual that has similar, or even identical facts to the larger group, so that when litigation proceeds, there are common questions and identical issues. There is often one defendant, but there can be multiple defendants, again if the class is representative of the facts of the larger group. This type of lawsuit basically allows the one lawsuit to be on behalf of all the similar claims that exist.
Why isn’t your cast iron plumbing a class action?
If each individual plaintiff has a different set of facts, then a class should not be certified and each homeowner should proceed on his or her own with an individual lawsuit.
First, with regard to simply having cast iron plumbing in your home, there are hundreds of potential defendants. Some may be common to others, but others may be entirely unique.
If there really were a possible class action, it would be against the maker or installer of the cast iron plumbing, and the allegation would be that they should have known it would fail. From 1975 or later, though? That’s 45 or more years ago. There would be no liability for manufacture or installation of a product that’s had such a long life. Inconvenient to the homeowner dealing with the damage and repair, today, sure, but there’s no liability for construction that far in the future. In Florida, the statute of limitations for latent construction defects is 10 years from the date of completion of the work, according to Fla. Stat. 558.004.
Chinese drywall, on the other hand was perfect for a class action law suit. The product was defective, failed almost immediately, and there were limited identifiable manufacturers.
Nearly every homeowner with cast iron plumbing is unique
Perhaps the more important prohibition for there being a pipe lawsuit class action, with regard to cast iron plumbing, is because nearly every homeowner in this situation is unique.
Let’s evaluate, shall we? If your home was built before 1975, it could have been built in a span of nearly 70 years and still be standing? That would include hundreds, if not thousands of cast iron pipe manufacturers, certainly hundreds of thousands of installing contractors, if not hundreds of thousands more who have maintained or serviced the cast iron plumbing in the 45-100+ years since. Next, you have the issue as to whether or not the plumbing has failed yet.
Some cast iron plumbing is still working fine. Other cast iron plumbing is having issues like slow draining and is in a state of deterioration, but hasn’t yet failed causing a leak. Others with cast iron plumbing may have experienced catastrophic failure requiring replacement, but may or may not have damage.
If you have seen a catastrophic failure where the cast iron drain pipe has rusted or rotted through, and you’ve experienced a clog, you may have been able to clear the line and continue using it for months or even years, repeating that maintenance service by snaking or jetting the line. Without jumping into the insurance claim issue just yet, that means each individual homeowner may have up to a half dozen different homeowners insurers entitled to evaluate and possibly provide coverage. Record keeping in that situation is key to your claim, but we’re still just poking holes in the whole “class action” lawyer commercial at this point, and it’s hypothetical.
What’s next that makes each individual homeowner too unique to certify a class? Well, if your line has failed, maybe you’ve had no damage as a result. Maybe backups have only gone into a sink or tub without any kind of overflow causing damage. Maybe you’ve had category 2 water leak from your dishwasher or washing machine. Maybe you’ve had category 3 water leak from your toilet. The water might’ve leaked inside, which would create an insurance claim, or it might’ve leaked outside, in which case there’d be no coverage trigger for an insurance claim.
If you do have damage inside triggering coverage for an insurance claim, you would have to make a claim. Having plumbing or having a leak without making a claim does not establish any kind of “class action.”
Now, if you’re in Florida and need to make a claim, let’s expand this scope even more. The public adjusters at VIP Adjusting have handled insurance claims throughout the state of Florida with over FIFTY different insurance companies. That’s a lot of potential defendants in a “class action,” and we can say from experience that each insurance company has it’s own tricks and tactics. Some pay claims. Some delay. Some deny. Some defend. Each one is different and destroy a potential class. The differences in each insurance company would be enough to defeat any kind of class action.
What do all the insurance companies have in common though?
Probably the part that is most misleading on the website for the “pipe lawsuit,” is the claim from these national attorneys that “your insurance company could deny coverage, claiming “wear and tear,” “deterioration,” or “water damage” exclusion.“ EVERY. INSURANCE. POLICY. HAS. THIS. EXCLUSION.
Even if your claim is covered, your insurance company will deny the replacement to the damaged pipe. This is the homeowners responsibility and to imply otherwise is misleading.
This website header actually goes beyond misleading and just blatantly LIES when it says “home or business owners who have suffered water damage may be entitled to have their insurance company re-pipe their entire house.” I repeat. This is a LIE. The insurance company may pay to provide access to re-pipe the entire house, but the insurance company will not pay to re-pipe cast iron drain lines.
This large national law firm doubles down on their misleading claim and states “we also show homeowners how they can secure funding to replace their cast iron pipes.” Getting a loan from somewhere is not at all the same as having the insurance company pay for it.
The “Pipe Lawsuit” “Class Action” commercial is nothing more than a marketing gimmick
People are so used to seeing lawyer ads on their TV. Have you used Roundup? Ever used Johnson & Johnson baby powder? Have you been exposed to asbestos? Lead paint? Taken antacids? Smoked cigarettes? There are hundreds of major class actions, or individual lawsuit commercials dating back at least 30 years. People are so used to them that their ears only perk up if it relates to them.
So, why wouldn’t a lawyer try to make it seem like if you live in an older home “you may be entitled to compensation!”? Well, because it’s unethical and misleading. You may be entitled to compensation, but the picture this law firm has painted is deceptive, at best. That law firm is just trying to get their foot in the door and their phone to ring.
Believe it or not, VIP Adjusting has had clients who have been fairly paid under their insurance policy for damages related to cast iron plumbing damage that have then contacted this law firm afterwards, over our objection, because they believed they were entitled to something more and ended up disappointed because of the misleading promises of that firm.
Please, if you have cast iron plumbing in your home and it has resulted in a leak, contact VIP Adjusting for a free claim consultation. We will provide you fair and honest evaluations, and straightforward answers to your questions.
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More about plumbing leak damage and plumbing leak insurance claims
What your insurance company covers if you have a plumbing leak
Propaganda
It’s no mystery…
Big businesses lobby in this country, and the insurance industry is one of the biggest. Insurance companies routinely spend more than $130 million annually to lobby, and more than $70 million annually in campaign contributions to influence politics, politicians, and legislation in their favor, and that’s just what we know about.
Before you ever make a claim, the deck is being stacked against you and it’s been stacked against you, for years.
As part of that strategy, insurance companies also rely on news articles and favorable reporting on issues that are often misrepresented to the public.
Let’s look at an example in the Miami Herald, before hurricane Irma.
South Florida’s leaky pipe problem poses risk to homeowners insurance
A brief introduction referencing the decade without a hurricane, followed by the presentation of a new boogey man. LEAKY PIPES! YOUR PREMIUMS ARE GOING TO SKYROCKET! CONTRACTORS ARE CHARGING TOO MUCH!
Don’t get me wrong, YOU should always remain in charge of your claim, and the contractor issue does need to be dealt with, BUT the main point of this article is that as homes age (or construction booms for new homes results in subpar workmanship), there are a LOT of pipes leaking.
Prior to Irma, plumbing claims were easily more than 50% of claims.
This is a job for underwriting though. If this were actually the problem, a better investment in underwriting and actuaries would solve this problem. But instead, for years, insurance companies in Florida have been fighting plumbing claims head on attempting to continually increase record profits. In addition to that, behind the scenes, they’ve been slipping in policy changes that work against you, before you even have a claim.
Plumbing leaks completely excluded from coverage? We’ve seen it.
$10,000 cap on plumbing claims? We’ve seen it.
$3,000 cap on emergency repairs to protect the property? We’ve seen it.
Complete exclusion on emergency repairs? We’ve seen that too.
The kicker is that these policies are often being sold with a negligible premium discount. For example, on one of our own homes, we got a quote from an insurance agent for a policy that completely excluded plumbing claims, and it only resulted in a $40 premium discount FOR THE YEAR! That’s a difference of $3.33 a month, for the most common type of insurance claim.
If plumbing problems were truly that much of a burden, would the premium difference really be $3.33 a month?
I don’t think so. That smells of a trick to trap the people just looking for insurance at the lowest price.
The lesson here?
Stay vigilant, educate yourself, and seek representation.
To help with that education, we’re working on compiling a bunch of information, both to let you know about our services, and to give you insight into what you’re up against. Feel free to check out our pages on: