What you need to know before filing an insurance claim for storm damage
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - It has been a tough weather week, the kind of weather that does damage.
While the hope is that nobody encounters problems, there are things that insurance agents recommend be done immediately if a problem occurs due to storm damage.
Pictures are a person's best friend and a big tip is to do them before you touch anything.
Insurance agents are coming to work Monday fully expecting to get a slew of claims.
"Most weather-related claims are what we consider direct immediate physical loss. A direct immediate physical loss is typically a covered loss," said Jennifer Johnsen-Nazareth, of State Farm Insurance.
It's not just car accidents either
"Things that we see are typically trees coming down from ice, in the current conditions that we're seeing we see heavy snow. The biggest one that we're seeing are frozen pipes," Johnsen-Nazareth added.
In fact, Pennsylvania has a rather dubious frozen pipe claim. According to Johnsen-Nazareth, Pennsylvania ranked no. 7 in frozen pipe claims due to 1,600 claims where they paid $31 million to cover.
The age of housing in this area is a big part of why there are so many broken pipe claims. That, and the weather. Johnsen-Nazareth recommends if you are going to be away from your home for any length of time during the winter, to turn your water off. That will prevent a leak from flooding your home and increasing your losses.
Whether it's a burst pipe, fallen tree or power line that's fallen on your car or house, Johnsen-Nazareth says to stop the damage from occurring, then take pictures.
"Make sure to stop the damage from occurring continuously. Then, the second thing you want to do is take photos of the damage, make those temporary repairs, keep those receipts," she said.
She also added that if your neighbor's tree falls onto your yard and does damage to your home, that would fall under your coverage.
Claims vary so much when it comes to damage. Contact an agent to see if there's coverage and whether filing a claim could impact a future insurance rate.
