When Someone Drives Into Your Home
You may see movies from time to time where a vehicle crashes into a home. Many times, they get airborne, but in real life, that is less likely to occur. However, it is not uncommon for a vehicle to strike a home due to an accident. When this happens, you need to know what steps to take to get the repairs underway. There are a few things to consider here.
When Someone Drives Into Your Home
Though it may not be something you thought of happening, a person having a medical emergency or someone that is driving under the influence may strike your home with their car. When this happens, your first step is to call the police to ensure everyone is safe. Then what?
In this type of situation, if the person does not live at your home, you would file a claim with their auto insurance policy. This falls under their liability insurance. Most states require drivers to maintain liability insurance for property damage like this.
If the damage is extensive, it may be hard to obtain enough compensation. In this case, you may need to work with an attorney to obtain the compensation owed to you.
What About Your Home Insurance Policy?
Most home insurance policies have some language in them about providing protection to you should someone else cause damage to your home. This may include covering damage if the driver’s policy runs out of coverage. Homeowners policies will cover, in most cases, damage the vehicle caused to the home. Your policy likely uses the word vehicles in it to describe a covered loss.
However, there are limitations here. Some policies may exclude this type of damage. It may also limit the coverage depending on the reason the vehicle hit the building. Policies do cover damage like this if you, as the property owner, hit the home as well. However, it will not cover damage you cause on purpose or due to reckless behavior.
If you have an incident like this occurs, speak to your home insurance agent. Discuss the coverage you have and what steps you should take to file a claim. Your agent is likely to work closely with you to make sure you have ample protection from losses like this to your home.
