Does your home have bugs?

 . . .  you know, roaches, ants, fleas, and the worst of all termites?

Today most Insurance companies consider pest infestations to be a home owner maintenance issue. That means your standard homeowners policy usually doesn't cover pests and bugs related damage.

Most policies include an exclusion for damage caused by birds, vermin, rodents, insects or animals owned or kept by the policyholder.

It falls upon the homeowner to maintain the property. For example, an annual termite inspection and treatment could head off an infestation and resulting damage.

Insurance companies consider pest infestations to be a home owner maintenance issue. That means your standard homeowners policy usually doesn't cover pest and bug related damage.

There may be a few exceptions such as, a few situations in which a homeowners policy will cover damage involving animals. For example, if an animal causes a fire in your house, the fire damage is covered.

Most Standard homeowners policies cover the damage or collapse of a home if hidden insect or vermin damage caused it, says Dallas Jameson of the An Association of Insurance Agents.

In this case "Hidden" means the homeowner can't see damage.However, the actual damage done by the insects or vermin is not covered. For example, say termites eat a few support beams under or on top of a home, and the place collapses.

The cost to replace the beam is maybe $ 2K. The damage to the rest of the stucture such as walls, floors and roof trusses is about $25K. The $2K beam is not covered, but the other damage is, Strang huh?

Termites in the United States today will cause between about $2.5 billion and $5 billion in damage to American homes this year alone!