Lightning Damage to Trees & Homeowners Insurance Coverage

Your homeowners insurance policy will provide coverage for a number of perils named and unnamed in the policy. One of the common areas that confuses homeowners is whether tree removal is covered. The circumstances of the claim will determine whether the insurance company pays for the damage.

Falling on the House

In some cases, trees are damaged by lightning and then fall on your house and cause damage. In this situation, your homeowners insurance should pay for the damage to your property as well as an amount to remove the tree from the premises. You will have to pay a deductible for the loss, and the amount of the tree removal costs will be limited to a specific amount. Many policies pay a maximum of $500 for tree removal.

No Property Damage

If a tree falls over or is damaged by a lightning strike and it does not fall on your house or cause any other damage, your insurance policy may provide coverage. In some cases, you will have to have an additional coverage rider to be covered for this situation. Other policies provide payment for tree removal when the tree is damaged by lightning. In this situation, the policy will also pay up to a certain coverage limit.

Type of Damage

If a tree is damaged in some way it will be important to be able to show that it was damaged by lightning. Most homeowners insurance policies will not pay any bills for tree removal if the damage was caused by wind. If the damage is definitely caused by lightning, then the insurance company will typically pay. However, if the adjuster determines that the tree was damaged by wind, the insurance company may not pay.

Considerations

When you have trees in your yard, it is important to check out your policy before something happens. When you are shopping around for homeowners insurance, you should ask the insurance agent what your policy provides for tree removal. If your policy does not provide any coverage for this area, you may want to pay an additional amount to add a coverage rider to the policy. This way, if the unexpected occurs, you will not have to come up with a large amount of money out of pocket.