Water and Sewer Line Insurance. Do I need this?

[disneysteve]

My water company periodically sends me a dire-sounding notice about how the water and sewer lines on my property are my responsibility if anything goes wrong. Of course, they are trying to get me to buy insurance for $12/month to cover costs if a water pipe bursts or a sewer line gets blocked.

Is this something I really need to be concerned about? If so, is $12/month an economical way to insure these lines or is there a better way to go about it?

[JanH]

I didn't know that you could get insurance for the water and sewer lines. All I know is that I think the city is responsible for the lines at the back of the property because they have come and cleaned those out and checked those when there was a problem. But the lines leading to the house we have had to pay for when something went wrong with the sewer line. We only have paid for cleaning and a clean out plug installed, but they told us to replace the sewer line alone would be over $1000. And we have a little, bitty yard. With the shifting soils here, an insurance policy might be a good thing. Or else put some away for future problems. Since you might only have problems every ten years or so, you might could just put that away? Something for me to think about. Good question.

[tinapbeana]

it might depend on how old the house (and therefore the existing piping) is. my parents bought a house that was 30 years old and had no issues for about 4 years. then they had about 2 years of back-to-back major water a sewer issues. blech! turns out the pipes that had been used were wearing thin so to speak and one of them got punctured when a plumber ran a 'snake' through the system to address a previous clog issue (which turned out to be tree roots growing through the pipe!). FYI, their homeowners actually covered water damage due to the burst water pipe...

[LuxLiving]

This is a case where I would personally self insure. If no problems okay, if it goes cablooey then I was a gambler and hopefully it could be fixed for what I've got stashed for such emergencies.

[disneysteve]

I've essentially been self-insuring for the 13 years we've lived here as I've repeatedly ignored the notices from the water company. The house is 42 years old. I'm not aware of any pipe replacement having been done in the past.

[sweeps]

If you're concerned about it, I would ask your homeowners insurance company how much the same coverage is (or if by chance you're already covered). $12/month seems very high to me.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by sweeps

If you're concerned about it, I would ask your homeowners insurance company how much the same coverage is (or if by chance you're already covered). $12/month seems very high to me.

The problem with homeowner's insurance is the risk that if you file a claim, they'll cancel your coverage. We had 2 claims on this house in 2000 and 2003. After the 2nd claim, they discontinued our coverage. The limit is 2 claims in a 5-year period. I had quite a bit of difficulty finding a company willing to write us a new policy after that. So I'm VERY skeptical of homeowner's insurance companies. Since we are still within 5 years of the most recent claim, one more claim could make it impossible for us to get coverage. It isn't worth taking that chance if there is another way to go.

[sweeps]

Point taken.

How's that for a great business. You charge customers a lot of money for something they must have and if they ask for anything in return, you cancel them. What a racket.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by sweeps

How's that for a great business. You charge customers a lot of money for something they must have and if they ask for anything in return, you cancel them. What a racket.

Yep. Life is good if you are an insurance company. You get to make all of the rules and force everyone else to play the game.

[JanH]

Wow, that means I can't allow myself to get hit by another hurricane until 2011. I'll have to keep that in mind....what do they think I can do about that? Sheesh. I think I am going to start self-insuring for those lines that need to be replaced. I didn't think about it. Thanks.

[creditcardfree]

I thought insurance companies distinguished between disasters that are an act of god versus those that are maintance preventable in figuring how many claims you've had in 5 years. In other words, can they really drop you for 3 claims for hail damage in 5 years, versus 3 claims of sewer lines breaking?

Steve, I might just have my sewer lines checked to know their status based on the age of the home. Tree roots can really do a number on those lines. Based on that information, I would make a decision. I tend to be one who picks self insurance on most things and probably would in this case as well.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by creditcardfree

I thought insurance companies distinguished between disasters that are an act of god versus those that are maintance preventable in figuring how many claims you've had in 5 years. In other words, can they really drop you for 3 claims for hail damage in 5 years, versus 3 claims of sewer lines breaking?

Well, they can probably drop you for any reason they can come up with, but I think you are right in theory. Both of our claims were not acts of nature. First, we had a short in our circuit box and the entire box and wiring coming into the house had to be replaced. Second, we had a car fire in our driveway that did some property damage (had to repave, replace garage door, replace lighting fixture that melted, etc.).

[mom-from-missouri]

I would love to have had such coverage when I had a pipe break, but $12 a month seems steep.
When my pipe broke several years ago, it was $800 to get it repaired, plus another $600 in water bills.

[Daylily]

On a similar note, I always opted out of the $4/month inside wire maintenance offered by the phone company. We had two lines, one for the home phone and one for a dedicated fax line for DH's work. The fax line stopped working. The problem is not with the phone company because supposedly the hub just down the road works fine. I assume a mouse chewed through the wire somewhere in our house. We did not get it fixed because of the cost. Obviously you couldn't do the same if it were a sewer line!

[boefixepa]

This is one of thouse situations where you know it will happen you just don't know when or how bad. At some point there will be major repairs needed on the house.

Home owners insurance is only for major disasters IMHO. As pointed out above what happens when you try and use them. It's a crime what they do, you have to have it, but if you use it they cancell you??? So if it's anything under 10K I don't see the point in even considering filling the claim. You just pay more for the repair over time in higher rates.

This is what emergency funds and planning are for. I have an 'envelope' for house maintaince, insurance dedductables, vet bills, car repairs etc. All these get there little bit every month. If something major happened I could combine them or take it from my acutaul 'emergency fund.'

People like to argue that you can't plan for things like a broken water line. Um....WRONG! You can plan for it, you just don't know what it is going to be at the time you are saving. If you can handle a major repair like this and not have to file a claim or 'charge it' then you know you are doing something right. Knock on wood...that nothing goes wrong at my house.

My vote is take that 12 a month and set it aside for repairs. That way you get the benifit of the interest and the $$ if nothing ever happens.

[lt.jrichey]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

My water company periodically sends me a dire-sounding notice about how the water and sewer lines on my property are my responsibility if anything goes wrong. Of course, they are trying to get me to buy insurance for $12/month to cover costs if a water pipe bursts or a sewer line gets blocked.

Is this something I really need to be concerned about? If so, is $12/month an economical way to insure these lines or is there a better way to go about it?

The insurance information for coverage is not being sent directly from the water company. I was just advised that we (the homeowner) are responsible from the meter all the way to the foundation of our home. I imediately called my insurance office and asked if this area was covered under my homeowners insurance? NO! And there was no information on some private insurance company that does. I then called the Indianapolis Water Co. They had no information on a company that provided insurance to cover this area. Now there may be a loop hole in your homeowners policy, lets say that a tree that you have planted near the main has a strong root system and has grown near to and in this case grown right through the pipe resulting in the main breaking. Would this be any different than one of your trees falling into your home, your car, and/or your neighbors stuff. In this case (of a tree falling) your insurance does cover the damage made by/from the tree. I believe the same coverage could be expected from the roots causing the damage. To be sure I have left this detailed question with my insurance Rep. and our family attorney.

[lt.jrichey]

I will post their response to my question.

[LuckyRobin]

My mother just had to pay $4000 to have a break in the line fixed a couple of months ago. It involved breaking up the asphalt driveway, a bulldozer digging down 12 feet and looking for a break along 200 feet of piping (fortunately they found it in the first 50 feet), then replacing the broken piping that was full of roots from a vining plant she'd planted above the line years ago. She also lost some very expensive heirloom rose bushes which are pretty much irreplaceable. If she decides to repave that part of the driveway it'll cost an additional $1000. If you have plenty of money in your emergency fund I see no need for this kind of insurance. But if you don't it might be worthwhile, especially if the house is set well back from the road like my mother's.

[SnoopyCool]

DH recently replaced our lines coming from the house to the main. Cheap fix for him, but he knows how to do it, was licensed at the time, and it wasn't 12' down under asphalt. Do you know much about where your line runs in/out and under what conditions would it take to replace/repair? I, too, think $12/mo is steep, but that would depend on when something needs replacing and how expensive it is to do it. Does that insurance also cover any water damage to your home if a pipe bursts? That might make it worth it if you can avert using homeowner's, especially if the cost of repairs is high.

[Bob B.]

I know that the previous owners of our house paid ~$10,000 to have the sewer line on their property cleaned, shortly before we moved in. Tree roots had created a blockage.