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Kara McGinley is a former senior editor and licensed home insurance expert at Policygenius, where she specialized in homeowners and renters insurance. As a journalist and as an insurance expert, her work and insights have been featured in Forbes Advisor, Kiplinger, Lifehacker, MSN, WRAL.com, and elsewhere. Few things are more inviting than a swimming pool on a hot summer day.
Most insurance companies require pool owners to comply with their local municipality ordinances. Doing so is the only real way to identify the exact laws that you need to follow. You should also contact your insurance company and collect detailed information to answer your questions. Once you have pictures of the damage to your fence and an estimate for the cost of repairing it, it's time to contact your insurance company and file a homeowners claim.
If a Tree Falls on Your Fence
That the policyholder must pay out of pocket before the insurer compensates any costs. Making claims also raises your homeowners insurance premiums, so it only makes sense to file a claim when the cost of repairs exceeds your deductible. While homeowners insurance will cover the fence in the event of a vehicle collision, you may want to file a claim with the driver’s car insurance instead.
Insurance companies generally approve claims for fence damages connected to a covered peril. Depending on how it happened, chances are your fence will be covered by your homeowners insurance. Policygenius Inc. (“Policygenius”), a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in New York, New York, is a licensed independent insurance broker. The information provided on this site has been developed by Policygenius for general informational and educational purposes. We do our best to ensure that this information is up-to-date and accurate.
Here’s How To Secure The Perimeter of Your Property
At Insure.com, we are committed to providing honest and reliable information so that you can make the best financial decisions for you and your family. All of our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. We maintain strict editorial independence from insurance companies to maintain our editorial integrity, so our recommendations are unbiased and are based on a comprehensive list of criteria. Other structures like your fence are typically insured for up to 10% of your dwelling coverage limit . For example, say your house is insured for $500,000, then you’d have a $50,000 claim limit for other structures like your fence. If the fallen tree was on your neighbor’s property, you should still file a claim with your insurance company, according to the Insurance Information Institute .
Insurers typically only cover accidents and would consider a weakened tree to be a foreseeable and preventable issue. This makes it important to keep an eye on the health of trees on and near your property. Document, document, document — The first thing they will tell you to do is get photos. It’s not that the insurance company won’t believe you, but you want to have pictures of your property as soon as the damage happens — or as soon as it’s safe to do so. They will want to see the damages up close, as well as in the context of your yard.
Risks Faced by Homeowners
A swimming pool creates a potential hazard for you as a homeowner and makes you liable for accidents. Stockpile the type and amount of fencing you want to use to further secure your land, home, and waterway with a long-term disaster and desperate trespassers in mind. Draw up a diagram of your property or print a Google Earth to lay out potential points of entry and blind spots from your home and LP/OP locations. Once you are aware of what state and local laws you are currently bound by, you can create a pre-SHTF fence that also adheres to your OPSEC philosophy. So, the two dangling chains and clip ends that had held a porch swing for the former owners were sourced to complete the project and keep my livestock pasture rotation plan on track. When setting up a fence across a waterway, it is best to do it when the water level is at its normal depth – especially if the barrier will also be used to keep livestock in.
A classic choice for homeowners, wooden fences are available in a variety of styles and can be stained or painted to match any aesthetic or home. A fenced perimeter is a must on any prepper retreat, survival homestead, or suburban bug in location. Being able to control entry onto your property will help ensure the safety of your loved ones from criminals, and the security guards or patrol team tasked with monitoring the area.
The "other structures" coverage in your home insurance policy covers damage to your fence from storms and vandalism, but not from the dings of a lawnmower or landscaping gone wrong. As for the amount of coverage, most policies cover fence damage up to a certain percentage of the policy's total coverage — usually 10%. Safety fencing is also a good safety idea if a homeowner has pets and wants to make sure their canine friends are staying within a home’s property lines. A fence by Long Fence can be installed at a predetermined height so as to keep dogs of any size contained in an area. Proper fencing will keep the threat of a pet running away or going into a neighbor’s yard to a minimum.
Another option is to install security features in such a way that they are too hard to reach or difficult to damage. This will prevent criminals and thieves from damaging your property without fear of repercussion. Access control systems allow you to restrict access to your property interior by unauthorized individuals while easing the passage of family members and visitors. By installing an alarm system, you can be confident that your property is as safe as possible. Alarm systems come in a variety of types, from simple jitter or tilt switches to complex vibration and infrared sensors with AI assessment of false positives.
If either the tree or the fence were neglected before the incident, there’s a chance that your insurance company could deny the claim. “Other structures on your property are typically covered for the same perils as your home. So if your dwelling coverage includes risks like theft, fire, falling objects and vandalism, your fence would likely be covered for those, too,” according to Allstate.
Most people buy umbrella coverage as an individual policy from the same insurance company that provides their home insurance. “Some companies may write a package policy that includes home and umbrella,” Foley says. Those statistics prompt some home insurers to refuse to sell coverage if a home has a pool but lacks a backyard fence. A fence can keep uninvited children from taking a dip in a homeowner’s pool. Creating a perimeter fence using only barbed wire may not be legal in your state. Common barbed wire allowable fencing heights are typically, 36, 48, or 52 inches tall.
When you notice your fence is damaged, you should take pictures before cleaning up or moving anything. Photographs of your fence help prove to your insurer that the damage was due to natural causes, vandalism or reckless driving. In the latter two cases, the police report will also serve as substantial proof.
You damaging the fence in a landscaping mishap or not properly caring for the fence won’t likely get the OK from the home insurance company. A standard homeowners insurance covers wind damage, however, if you live in a coastal area wind and hail damage may be excluded from your policy. If that’s the case, you likely need to purchase windstorm insurance.
Bank erosion will cause the post and the fencing to become loose or collapse entirely over time. A waterway fence will need to be monitored more closely and more often than your other perimeter fence sections. In states where it is allowed, , you could use trees as gate and fence posts instead of cutting or buying wood posts. Using the natural elements on your survival retreat will save you money and allow you to construct the fence quicker. In some states, property owners on either side of a boundary line fence are responsible for its upkeep.
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