Does home insurance cover asbestos removal?
I'm looking to buy my first home, and I've fallen in love with a beautiful older house. Unfortunately, along with mid-century charm, it also contains asbestos. Will my insurance cover its removal?
Answer
Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely.
Asbestos is not an uncommon building material in older houses, which means it’s an exclusion under most home insurance policies.
The exception to this is that asbestos removal can sometimes be covered if the asbestos is disturbed as the result of an event that is covered.
If your kitchen floods, for example, asbestos previously trapped in the wall might be released. As long as the flooding is covered within your policy, your insurance would be on the hook for paying for asbestos removal as well as the water damage.
The good news, though, is that unless it’s disturbed, asbestos is not considered an immediate threat—so as long as you make sure it’s safely contained, you can enjoy that mid-century charm worry-free!
Making sure your insurance covers everything you need can be a big task. Tools like Jerry can be a big help—we can cancel old policies, provide free quotes, and even do the paperwork for bundling home and auto insurance for you so that you can have more free time to safely enjoy your new home.
Savannah Grabek
Answered on Aug 09, 2021
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