Is hail damage covered by building insurance?
These days, extreme hailstorms are becoming more common. Large hailstones can cause considerable damage to your home. Especially things like skylights or solar panels can be severely damaged by hailstones. But is hail damage actually covered by home insurance? You can read it here.
Coverage hail damage
Building insurance coverage includes damage caused by fire, water, burglary, vandalism and adverse weather conditions, such as lightning, storm, precipitation, frost and hail. So hail damage is covered under the basic coverage of your building insurance. However, the coverage for hail damage may vary from one insurer to another. In general, hail damage to your home and outbuildings, such as a shed or garden house, is covered. A pavilion, aviary or pergola are also usually covered. Damage to loose items in your garden, such as a garden set, is not insured with building insurance. For this you can take out contents insurance. Keep in mind that insurers often charge an increased deductible for hail damage.
Solar Panels
When taking out building insurance, you can indicate whether you want to include solar panels in the insurance. If you choose this option, your solar panels are also insured in case of hail damage. It is of course annoying if expensive solar panels are damaged by hail. Fortunately, the chances of actual damage are not that great. Solar panels are often tested by the manufacturer under extreme (weather) conditions. In addition, solar panels are protected on the outside by tempered glass and Plexiglas. This is up to 5 times stronger than normal glass. Hail damage to solar panels is therefore fortunately rare. Should it happen to you, you know that you can contact your home insurance company.
Note that hailstones can also cause invisible damage to solar panels, such as small cracks. The effects of such damage often cannot be seen or noticed until later. However, some insurers have chosen not to insure invisible hail damage to solar panels. What your insurer does can be found in the policy conditions.
Skylight
If your home has skylights, chances are that they will be damaged in a severe hailstorm. However, most insurers do not cover glass as standard. You can take out additional glass insurance for this. With glass insurance you are insured for damage to windows. This means all windows that are intended to let daylight in.
Roof tiles
When hailstones are large, they can cause significant damage to a home's roof. Fortunately, hail damage to your roof tiles is standard co-insured with homeowners insurance. If you are a tenant of a home, you can recover any hail damage from the landlord.
What is not insured?
Hail damage caused by open windows, doors or skylights is usually not co-insured. The same goes for damage caused by moisture. With some insurers, hail damage to gutters or window frames is also not covered. Coverage can vary from one insurer to another. Always check the policy conditions of your building insurance to see how you are insured in case of hail damage.
Get property insurance through Alpina
To be well insured in the event of a severe hailstorm, you can take out building insurance on Alpina.nl Would you like to take out additional glass insurance or insure your solar panels? Then you can easily indicate this in our online tool. With this online tool, you can compare different home insurance policies and get an instant indication of the premium. If you have found the right building insurance you can take out the insurance directly online.
Do you still have questions about taking out building insurance? Please contact us or request a no-obligation quote. You can also take a look at our frequently asked questions about home insurance. Here we have collected as much information as possible for you!
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