You have your Hastings Mutual Homeowners insurance policy to protect your personal property when something goes wrong, like a fire or a lightning strike. You can supplement your Homeowners policy with the additional coverages we call Homeowners Coverage Plus.

One of the primary coverages available on Coverage Plus is Back Up of Sewers or Drains. We’ll pay up to $10,000 on a loss resulting from water damage if water backs up through a drain or your sump pump overflows.

You never want to suffer a loss at your home, to be sure, but water backup can be one of the worst things that happens — dirty water spreading across your floor, soaking into carpet and flooding your possessions. It happened after an enormous storm at my parents’ house several years ago; a lot of the material on and around my father’s workbench was destroyed, as was the old couch in the basement I used to sit on while I watched music videos on MTV (so, it’s been a while since I used that couch).

How likely is it that you’ll need Back Up of Sewers or Drains coverage? You never know when a big storm like the one that flooded my parents’ basement will happen, but that’s not the only reason a drain might reverse its flow. Maybe a pipe is blocked by a tree root or something happens when your municipality is working on the water lines. There are many reasons a water backup could happen.

If the water or sewer line breaks in your yard, however, that’s a different Hastings Mutual coverage: Utility Line Expense, better known as service line coverage.

My parents told me the flooded basement that resulted in the destruction of my old MTV couch was smelly and just plain wet; they had to relocate to a hotel for a few days while the water was pumped away from their house and every house on the street. Thanks to their insurance coverage, the repairs didn’t cost them anything. With Hastings Mutual Coverage Plus, it may not cost you anything either.

Questions? Let us know in the comments.

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