I've been getting solicitations for "water pipe insurance"

[dasherHampton]

I've been receiving mailings for about a year now (I've lived in my current home for 10 years). I've never gotten these before. They offer "pipe insurance" for around $10-$20 a month. Of course, they lay out disastrous scenarios that result in humungous repair costs for the home owner if any pipe on your property breaks. I think one mailing indicated over $10,000 is possible. Of course I haven't kept track but they seem to come from different companies.

I've never gotten these before. Has anyone else? What's the deal here? I googled for info on my liability and it's all over the place. Not very clear.

Has anyone every had a water pipe break on their urban property? What happened?

 

[whm1974]

Doesn't your homeowner's insurance plan cover this?

 

[dasherHampton]

They say it doesn't. I guess I should call to be sure.

 

[dasherHampton]

Nope, my homeowner's doesn't cover anything from the main to the house.

The lady said it's unlikely to have to worry about it if I don't have big trees on my property, which I don't.

 

[lxskllr]

Never heard of it, but I'm not surprised it exists. A break can be an expensive repair, but I don't know anyone that's had a residential line break outside of the house. The biggest danger seems to be the the power going out/turned off for an extended period, and interior pipes breaking. That's not usually hard to avoid for most people, and probably isn't covered by the insurance they're offering anyway. Sounds like a scam to separate people from their money.

 

[MrBailey]

Lurker unlurking.

I'm the guy who had a line break outside the house.

I used to (recently) live in a 100 y.o. house. We got the same type of mailings. We eventually signed up for about $120 a year. The next year our outgoing drain pipe (i.e. sewage) collapsed from tree roots. Old clay pipes.

We called the company...they came and fixed it all. It was quite the project. And well worth the $120.

Later on our water main started leaking at the meter. Called them again...and got that fixed.

So, while it could be a gamble, for us it was worth it. These two issues were not covered by home owners.

Google the company and see what kind of reviews you get.

Factor in the age and condition of your house. From there you can decide if it's worth it or not.

Cheers.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You'd think home insurance would cover this, it's ridiculous how they pick and choose such specific scenarios. It should be that they cover flood coverage, or they don't, it's stupid to make exceptions for the cause.

That said for $20/mo you're better off just putting that money in a savings account so you can deal with an emergency like this if it happens. If you start getting all sorts of specific insurance for every possible thing that could go wrong that's not covered you're going to just be throwing money away.

We do get lot of water main breaks here but they tend to only affect the street, so it's the city that takes care of it anyway. I imagine if the water line to a house broke near the house then that could possibly be very disastrous as it would undermine the entire foundation, though if you're at home when it happens I imagine you'd notice due to lack of water at the faucet and then be able to call the city to come close the street valve. Though if it's the weekend or night then yeah that would suck. Would still suck to deal with, but rather take the risk of having to spend ~10k for repairs in the rare case it happens than to have yet another monthly expense.

 

[Drako]

You'd think home insurance would cover this, it's ridiculous how they pick and choose such specific scenarios.

The water main is not part of the house, so why would it be covered by home insurance?

That said, I had my water line break about 15 years ago, about 20 feet from the connection to the house in my front yard. I got home late from work on a Friday night, stepped out of the car, and here the sound of running water. I look at my front yard, and there was a mini geyser bubbling. I had the water company come out, and they basically said "Yep, it's broken, have fun".

I spent the pretty much all day Saturday digging down to the pipe, finding the cracked pipe and repairing it. Luckily I did not have any concrete or trees/foliage in the way so it was not too bad. I live in California, so the water pipe was only about 2.5 feet down, so I saved a ton of money doing my self.

 

[PowerEngineer]

FWIW, I remember being solicited for water pipe insurance a couple of years ago, and knowing that several neighbors had already had problems I did seriously consider buying it. Of course, I never actually did so -- and the water supply line began leaking six months later.

Replacement under a three car garage drive way was an interesting process. They dug short trenches on either side of the driveway, snaked a cable through the old plastic pipe, and them pulled a pipe cutter (to split the old pipe and move it out of the way) attached to the new pipe back through (using a pickup truck). The whole job took less than a day and as I recall cost me about $2K.

 

[IronWing]

My city offers such insurance for dirt cheap but I live outside the city. Replacing fifteen feet of collapsed clay pipe and adding cleanouts set me back $2K.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The water main is not part of the house, so why would it be covered by home insurance?

The lake, river, or clouds that cause a flood is not part of the house either.

Insurance should cover whatever happens to the house, whatever the cause. That's how it should work, given the money you pay is for that purpose. It's ridiculous how they pick and choose what to cover.

 

[Newbian]

The lake, river, or clouds that cause a flood is not part of the house either.

Insurance should cover whatever happens to the house, whatever the cause. That's how it should work, given the money you pay is for that purpose. It's ridiculous how they pick and choose what to cover.

But that's not how you make money then.

 

[MrSquished]

I use illegal gnomes when I have to have work done on my pipes, keeps things cheaper

 

[Alpha One Seven]

Check with BBB.com

 

[Darwin333]

The lake, river, or clouds that cause a flood is not part of the house either.

Insurance should cover whatever happens to the house, whatever the cause. That's how it should work, given the money you pay is for that purpose. It's ridiculous how they pick and choose what to cover.

The problem with flood is that a lot of times the sheer number of homes affected and the huge cost to repair each home would bankrupt insurers so no one gets paid or they'd have to charge a metric shitton to keep enough money in reserve to cover a bad year and even then a really bad year could still wipe them out.

They either won't cover it or price it so damn high that no one could afford it. That is why the feds cover it.

 

[NoCreativity]

I had it in my old house. It was an old neighborhood and during our walks we saw several houses that had their supply pipe replaced. I think ours was $5/month. Never ended up using it but well worth the cost considering repairing it ourselves would have cost about $5000.