Unexpected appliance and household system breakdowns can be a financial nightmare for homeowners, often requiring hundreds or thousands of dollars to repair. Breakdowns caused by fire or weather events typically are covered under most standard homeowner policies, but common losses caused by electrical and mechanical failures aren’t covered.
However, by adding equipment breakdown coverage to their policy, homeowners are protected against sudden, accidental equipment breakdowns and the staggering repair rates.
For instance, if an air conditioning unit is destroyed in a house fire, that would be a fire claim covered under a homeowners policy; however, if that unit breaks down because the circuitry fails, that is not a covered loss. Equipment breakdown coverage is designed to pick up where homeowners policies leave off by covering breakdowns and failures that occur inside the equipment itself.
Coverage can be purchased on a wide range of equipment including:
- Air conditioning and electrical distribution systems
- Furnaces and heat pumps
- Kitchen appliances
- Water heaters
- Water treatment systems
- Electronics
- Home solar systems
- Health equipment
- Tools
Equipment breakdown coverage covers damage caused by electrical and mechanical failure to covered equipment, but it doesn’t cover routine maintenance. Coverage is relatively inexpensive, making the endorsement a wise choice for homeowners.
Insurance is there for those catastrophic losses, and equipment breakdown coverage is there to cover the losses that create a need to replace a whole system. In some cases, those losses can amount to tens of thousands of dollars otherwise.
To learn more about the affordability of equipment breakdown coverage, contact your Virginia Farm Bureau insurance agent.
