Mouse season is nearly here. When the weather starts to cool down in fall and winter, rodents start to look for warmer places to live, like inside homes.

Rodents are big problems to homeowners. The skittering and gnawing can keep you up at night. Seeing a mouse in an unexpected place in your home can scare the daylights out of you. These rodents can spread dozens of diseases, parasites, viruses, and bacteria that can be deadly. These diseases include typhus, hantavirus, salmonella, Lyme disease, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, rickettsial disease, and many more. They’ll spread their feces and urine everywhere, contaminating your food, food surfaces, and all other areas they cross or reside in. And they can also cause serious property damage. The repairs and restorations for damage caused by rodents can cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. And you might be on the hook to pay for it all.

Homeowner’s insurance might not pay for your mice and rodent damage.

Types of Mice and Rodent Damage

Think these tiny critters can’t cause much damage? You’d be very wrong. The damage can be wide-ranging and very costly to repair. These critters can gnaw holes in your foundation, your bricks, your wood, and your drywall. They can destroy your insulation while nesting and creating mazes to run through in your attic and walls. These activities create cold pockets in the insulation, which drastically reduces its effectiveness. They can chew through your gas and water pipes. They can chew through your electrical watering.

This damage on its own can be pretty costly to repair, but it can also result in floods and fires.

Why It Might Not Be Covered by Insurance

Once the damage is done, you might look at your homeowner’s policy, looking for your insurance carrier to cough up the cash for the repairs. Unfortunately, your insurance might not cover mice and rodent damage. In fact, most insurance policies don’t.

Damage caused by rodents is usually seen as a long-term problem, caused by negligence. And this type of damage just isn’t usually covered. As your insurance carrier will see it, the damage was preventable with regular home maintenance, so to the insurance company, it’s your fault. And the expense is yours to bear.

When This Damage Might Be Covered

However, there are certain instances where you might be able to get your insurance carrier to cover the costs of repairs and restorations, wildlife removal, and decontamination.

Most homeowner’s insurance policies will cover sudden and unexpected damage caused by rodents. This usually covers single-event scenarios. For example, if a big windstorm blows off parts of your roof, and critters come in through the openings, you’d be covered for the roof damage, the rodent damage, and the removal costs. If your garage is blown off by a tornado and rodents get in, then all of these costs will be covered, too.

You see the difference? These scenarios will be covered because the damage was caused not by negligence or poor home maintenance, but by an accident, storm, or another factor that’s covered by the insurance. Gradual damage won’t be covered, but sudden and unexpected damage will be.

If the damage is already done, contact your insurance agent to discuss the specifics of your policy in order to better understand what is and isn’t covered when it comes to mice and rodent damage. Otherwise, the best way to prevent having to pay out of pocket is to prevent these critters from getting into your home to begin with. Perform a home inspection and seal up any and all entry points.

 

Share This