Is hail damage covered by the building insurance?
Nowadays, extreme hail storms are becoming more frequent. Large hailstones can cause considerable damage to your home. Especially things like skylights or solar panels can be seriously damaged by hailstones. But does hail damage fall under the coverage of a buildings insurance? You can read it here.
Hail damage cover
The coverage of a building insurance includes damages caused by fire, water, burglary, vandalism and adverse weather conditions such as lightning, storm, precipitation, frost and hail. So hail damage is part of the basic coverage of your building insurance. However, the cover for hail damage may differ per insurer. In general, hail damage to your home and outbuildings, such as a shed or garden house, is included in the insurance. A pavilion, aviary or pergola are usually also insured. Damage to loose objects in your garden, such as garden furniture, is not insured with a building insurance. For this you can take out a contents insurance. Please note that insurance companies often charge an increased own risk for hail damage.
Solar panels
When you take out buildings insurance, you can indicate whether you want to include solar panels in your policy. If you choose this option, your solar panels are also insured in the event of hail damage. Of course, it is annoying if expensive solar panels are damaged by hail. Fortunately, the likelihood of damage is not great. Solar panels are often tested by their manufacturers under extreme (weather) conditions. In addition, the solar panels are protected on the outside by hardened glass and Plexiglas. This is up to five times stronger than normal glass. Hail damage to solar panels is therefore fortunately rare. If it should happen to you, you know that you can contact your insurer for this.
Please note that hailstones can also cause invisible damage to the solar panels, such as small cracks. The consequences of such damage are often not visible or noticeable until later. However, some insurers have chosen not to insure invisible hail damage to solar panels. You can find out what your insurer does in the policy conditions.
Skylight
If your house has roof windows, there is a good chance that these will be damaged in a heavy hail storm. However, most insurance companies do not insure glass as standard. You can take out additional glass insurance for this. With a glass insurance you are insured for damage to windows. This means all windows that are meant to let daylight in.
Roof tiles
If the hailstones are large, they can cause considerable damage to the roof of a house. Fortunately, hail damage to your roof tiles is standard included in a building insurance policy. If you are a tenant of a house, 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 insured. The same applies to damage caused by moisture. Some insurers also do not insure hail damage to gutters or window frames. The coverage can differ per insurer. 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 properly insured in the event of a severe hailstorm, you can take out Alpina.nl take out home insurance. Would you like to take out additional glass insurance or co-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 gathered as much information as possible for you!
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