Every water claim starts with the same argument. How long had it been leaking?
Sudden and accidental is generally covered. Constant or repeated seepage generally isn’t. And the whole claim depends on which one your insurance company decides you had — a decision made from what the damage looks like when the wall comes open, and from what your plumber wrote on an invoice before anyone thought about coverage.
Sudden vs. repeated seepage
Policy language determines what is covered or not. Sudden and accidental is generally covered. Constant or repeated seepage generally is not — and the exclusions below are worded differently by different carriers, which is why yours has to be read rather than assumed.
- Almost nobody discovers a leak while it’s starting if hidden between walls, ceiling and floors.
- Is this sudden and accidental or repeated seepage? That’s the question that matters.
- Find this section in your policy, it matters greatly.
“Constant or repeated seepage or leakage of water or the presence or condensation of humidity, moisture, or vapor, that occurs or develops over a period of 14 or more days, whether hidden or not.”
Example language · wording and figures vary by carrier and by policy, and the variation is the whole pointRead the end of that sentence, because it’s where your insurance company determines if the claim is covered or not. Under this wording, seepage running past the day count is excluded whether hidden or not. It doesn’t matter that the leak was behind a wall, under a floor or above a ceiling, and it doesn’t matter that no one in the house had any way of knowing it was there. Hidden buys you nothing with the wording “whether hidden or not”.
Same exclusion, different wording. This can determine if the loss is covered by your insurance company or not.
“This peril does not include loss … caused by constant or repeated seepage or leakage of water or steam, or the presence or condensation of humidity, moisture or vapor; which occurs over a period of 14 or more days, unless the resulting damage: (a) Is unknown to all ‘insureds’; and (b) Is hidden within the walls or ceilings or beneath the floors or above the ceilings of a structure.”
Example language · accidental discharge or overflow provision · wording and figures vary by carrier and by policy- “Whether hidden or not” became “unless”, and that one word flips the outcome.
- Under this second policy example, damage that was genuinely hidden and genuinely unknown is covered.
- Same leak, same fourteen days, opposite result — decided by a word most homeowners have never read.
- Find that sentence in your own policy before you assume anything about where you stand.
What the plumber writes
Nobody should ever speculate about how long it had been leaking. Not you, not your plumber, not the adjuster standing in your kitchen.
What plumbers write, and how it gets read
- Most plumbers are excellent at plumbing and have no idea how an insurance company reads an invoice.
- They are describing a pipe. The insurance company reads it as a date.
- A guess about age, or a word like deteriorated, lands on the file as a red flag before anyone has looked at the damage.
When the clock actually starts
- A corroded pipe and a long-running leak aren’t the same thing.
- A line can sit rusted and pitted for years before it gives way and starts leaking water into your home.
- The clock in the example exclusion above runs on damage to the dwelling, not on the age of the pipe. Most policies read this way.
- What matters is when the failed plumbing started to leak, and when the water started causing damages to the dwelling.
- Present the damage properly and the burden of proof moves. That’s where these claims are actually settled.
How to properly document your water loss
- Never speculate about duration. Not on an invoice, not in an email, not to the adjuster.
- Ask your plumber to write what he observed. The location of the failed pipe and the repair he had to perform.
- Keep the plumber’s invoice and report.
- Keep the failed part — never let the plumber take it, because the insurance company will want to inspect it.
What to do when you find a water leak
- Shut the water off at the main. This is the one repair to make without hesitating.
- Photograph and video everything before anything else happens.
- Report it to your insurance company immediately and inquire on dryout procedures.
- Make no other repairs, and let nothing leave the property.
The limit on drying out
Your policy generally pays for reasonable emergency measures — the work done to stop the damage from getting worse. On an everyday water loss, that payment is capped, and the cap is smaller than most people would guess.
“We will pay up to the greater of $3,000 or 1% of your Coverage A limit of liability for the reasonable costs incurred by you for necessary measures taken solely to protect covered property from further damage when the damage or loss is caused by a Peril Insured Against.”
“To the degree reasonably possible, you must submit photos, videos, or any other documentation that shows the damaged property, the cause and origin of loss, and the condition it was in at the time of loss.”
“We will not pay more than the amount above unless you submit a written request for an increase… We will respond to you within forty-eight (48) hours of your request… If we fail to approve or deny your request within forty-eight (48) hours… you may exceed the amount above to perform the reasonable emergency measures necessary to protect the covered property from further damage, but no more than the reasonable cost.”
Example language · wording and figures vary by carrier and by policy- If you bring in your own drying company, watch the limit.
- The written request with approval is the only way past the cap.
- They have a time limit to answer, and your policy states it. Some say forty-eight hours, some say seventy-two.
- Ask before the work, not after. Approval obtained afterwards isn’t approval.
What to do, what to ask for and what needs to stay
Your insurance company will usually want to send its own drying company, and I have no objection to that at all. It removes the cap and it gets equipment into your house quickly. Just understand that the company was retained by your insurance company — its scope, its readings and its daily records go to your insurance company’s file. That’s why you keep your own record of the work alongside theirs.
- Video and photograph the drying process as it happens.
- Ask for all the dryout logs and estimates. You’re entitled to them.
- Know what the dryout logs don’t prove. Readings taken off the surface say nothing about moisture still trapped behind it.
- Nothing leaves the property until the adjuster has inspected it.
What to look for in your policy
A water loss depends on the exact wording of your policy more than any other claim I handle. Two policies can use the same exclusion and come to opposite conclusions because of one word. Get your policy and review the items listed below.
- The constant or repeated seepage exclusion, and exactly how it’s worded. One word decides it.
- Whether the exclusion says hidden or not makes no difference, what matters is the wording describing that phrase.
- Your all-other-perils deductible.
- The cap on reasonable emergency measures, and the deadline for a written request to exceed it. The limit on drying out.
- Any mold limit, and whether it’s a separate sublimit. Mold.
- Is the home livable? If not, find your Additional Living Expense coverage on the declarations page and check the limit and its time limitations.
- The endorsement titled Special Provisions — Florida. It can change coverages in your policy.
- Yearly renewals often change coverages in previous policies. Review all endorsement changes yearly.
After a water loss: Dos and Don’ts
Dos
- Shut the water off at the main first. That’s the one repair to make without hesitating.
- Photograph and video everything before anything else happens. Overview shots that establish where you are, then close-ups. Every affected room, the source, and the failed component if you can see it.
- Answer their questions accurately. Whether the home is livable, whether it’s still wet, whether they need to send a drying company. Those answers decide what happens next.
- Keep the failed part on the property. Not in the plumber’s truck. They may want to inspect it or send it off for analysis.
- Ask your plumber to write only what he observed. The condition of the pipe and the repair he performed. What the plumber writes.
- If retaining your own dryout company, ask in writing before you exceed the emergency measures cap. Approval obtained afterwards isn’t approval.
- Document the dryout as it happens, and ask for the dryout logs. You’re entitled to them and they help support your loss.
- Keep dated notes of what surfaces later. Floors that cup, doors that stop closing, smells that arrive weeks later.
Don’ts
- Don’t speculate about how long it had been leaking. Not out loud, not in an email — and nobody else should guess either. That’s a question for an engineer.
- Don’t let the plumber take the failed part. Once it leaves the loss location, the physical evidence that supported the loss is gone forever.
- Don’t let anything else leave the property either. Drywall, baseboard, cabinetry, flooring, insulation. It stays on site until the adjuster has inspected it.
- Don’t make repairs before it’s photographed. If something genuinely can’t wait, photograph the condition first and the work as it happens.
- Don’t assume a corroded pipe means the claim is dead. The exclusion runs on damage to the dwelling, not on the age of the pipe.
- Don’t assume the dryout logs prove the house is dry. If nothing was opened up, nobody has looked behind it.
This isn’t everything. Your policy carries conditions and duties that apply after a loss, and they’re yours to meet whether or not they appear here. Read your own policy in full. If something in it doesn’t make sense, call me — it’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, whether or not you hire me.
These are the ones specific to this kind of loss. Select the link for the Dos and Don’ts that apply to every claim.
The call that matters
If you have a water loss, call or email me before the cutting starts. Not because you couldn’t handle it yourself, but because the decisions that determine what your claim is worth get made on the first day, and once the material is gone they’re hard to undo. It’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, and I’ll tell you plainly where you stand and what needs documenting before anybody touches it.
You stay in control of your claim. That’s the whole point.