What Homeowners Insurance Does Not Cover
When people insure their homes, they have to read the fine print really carefully. Most obvious problems that will cost homeowners money are covered. However, damage from floods often is not. This leaves people to buy special insurance or face…
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When people insure their homes, they have to read the fine print really carefully. Most obvious problems that will cost homeowners money are covered. However, damage from floods often is not. This leaves people to buy special insurance or face large financial damages in the case of a disaster. As the number of floods increases, these barriers loom larger. Another potentially costly condition is mold.
According to a Realtor.com analysis, “5 Surprising Things Homeowners Insurance Won’t Cover,” the authors point out that “While home insurance typically covers a variety of common hazards, don’t get too confident—it may not cover every mishap that comes your way.”
Mold has a number of causes. Among them are leaks, humidity, appliances that leak, and major flooding from outside the home. Carpet, drywall, and paint often become moldy. Mold can damage health as well as home infrastructure, which makes it a problem for both people who live in a house, and potential buyers. Mold detection is usually part of buyer inspections.
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Healthline reports that mold can cause breathing problems and headaches. These problems can become chronic.
Analysis of mold removal shows costs can run as high as $3,000 for a medium sized house. For a larger home, the figure can be double. Carpet sometimes needs to be taken up and destroyed. In severe incidents, walls need to be torn down and replaced. In other words, mold costs can run double many mortgage monthly payments.
The CDC suggests a number of mold prevention measures. These include “controlling” humidity levels, repairing all leaks, regardless of their sources, cleanup after floods, and ventilation of areas which include showers and laundries.
The Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases reports that fungal disease drives medical costs of as much as $7 billion a year. So, the primary financial effects of mold can be more in healthcare costs than home repairs.
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Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
