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If the latest reports on the catastrophes that hit this year haven’t made it clear enough, the earth’s elements are working against your clients. Now, an analysis of eight years’ worth of Travelers personal insurance property claims revealed that wind, water, hail and more water are the most common and costliest causes of home damage in the US.
Wind was the top threat nationally, accounting for 24% of claims from 2009 to 2016, while non-weather related water made up 20% of claims, hail appeared in 16%, and weather-related water was the main cause of damage in 11% of claims. At the end of the list, theft accounted for 6% of property claims, according to the “Top Five Ways Things Can Go Wrong in Your Home” interactive report.
“Those [causes] remain pretty consistent over the past years,” said Angi Orbann, VP of product and personal Insurance at Travelers. “But, I think what we’ve seen in recent years, especially in recent quarters, is an increase in our weather-related claims. This tends to go in ups and downs, but recently, with the wildfires in California, the wind events in the Midwest, the hail events in the West and the South, those continue to drive the most common type of claims.”
No region of the US is then safe from risks tied to the weather, though non-weather water claims also tend to rank highly in the report. In the western regions, plumbing, sewer or appliance leaks are highlighted as threats causing frequent and costly claims at a higher rate than the national average, at 28%. In the same area of the US, fire unsurprisingly was ranked as the second most expensive cause of claims, accounting for 26% of property claims.
A rise in partnerships between insurers and vendors offering sensor installation in homes can help stem the tide of non-weather water damage. Travelers recently partnered with Notion, a company specializing in sensor technology, to give its customers the ability to test out sensors and see if they help drive down repair costs and claims of water damage.
“We’ve seen from claims that it could be the type of plumbing that was installed at a certain point of time that is just starting to age. It could be the increase in cold weather bursts that are happening in areas that were not typically used to [temperatures] that could freeze the pipes,” said Orbann. “The availability of sensors is definitely increasing and it’s interesting to us from the perspective of helping our customers reduce either the risk of the loss or how severe a loss is, especially when you think about water sensors, again with all the non-weather water.”
If a homeowner is out for the day, as many are, or are one for a longer period of time, a sensor that sends notifications to their phone alerting them of a burst pipe can mean a faster reaction time to fix the problem before an entire basement is flooded.
Whether it’s weather or not, Orbann recommends that homeowners know what their deductibles are, what part of a property claim they’d be responsible for depending on their policy, and if they’re covered for all the dwellings on their land, including often-overlooked areas like pools or patios.
“Our agents are very adept at having these conversations with the customers, and making sure that they understand what their coverages are and what their responsibility will be based on the type of claims,” Orbann said.
