Will homeowners insurance pay for bird damage?

If you are a homeowner, you have done the little things that are necessary to ensure that your house is well protected. This can mean that you placed a fence around your yard, added additional locks to the doors, put a security system in, smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, and other measures like this that ensure that you and your family are well protected, as well as the largest investment you will make in your life. You spend a great deal of money on your home, and you don't want to take any risk and damage that investment.

One of the ways that people protect that investment is by getting homeowners insurance should some kind of catastrophe happen. If there is a fire, water damage, tornado, or some other kind of disaster that damages the home, that homeowner's insurance will ensure that the house and its property are protected. The home will be repaired and the property will be replaced. It's something that gives the average homeowner a great deal of peace of mind.

There are different kinds of events that many homeowners worry may not be covered by their insurance. One of these is if birds cause damage to the home. They wonder if in this eventually the insurance pays for whatever damage the birds cost? It's a good question, that comes with a little bit more complicated answer than you would probably like to hear.

There are certain kinds of damage that your homeowner's insurance is simply not going to cover. For example, if you have a woodpecker or two that is knocking at the siding of your home, and eventually causes some damage that allows water to seep in, leading to mold and other health issues, it is highly unlikely that your insurance will cover this. These are natural kinds of events that the insurance company does not consider part of a normal policy.

Birds dropping large amounts of their waste onto your property so that it stains the roof, the driveway, or your deck will also not be covered. Even if the waste from these birds caused bacteria and other organisms to eat away at the boards on the deck or the shingles on the roof you can be sure that your insurance company will likely not cover that either. To them, these are things that you could have done something about had you treated it right away. In terms of the staining that comes from these bird's poop, this is something that the insurance company would consider to be much I can to moss growing on your deck. If you power wash this on your own and take care of it then the problem would resolve itself. They simply won't pay for that.

Now that you know the things they will cover, you should be aware that there are instances where the insurance company will completely come through for you. One of those is if birds get into your home and take over a room like an attic. Because of the massive amount of damage that birds can cause if they are allowed to exist in your attic for an extended period of time, this is often considered one of those kinds of eventualities that is covered by your insurance policy.

While not every aspect of that may be covered, it is likely that a lot of the repair portion of it will be. This can mean that your homeowner's insurance will cover the replacement of insulation, drywall, boards, and other materials that are necessary to maintain the overall health of the structure. 

It would likely also cover an extensive cleanup of the affected areas where the birds were living. For those of you who may not know this, birds carry a large number of diseases and parasites. In fact, the feces of many birds can have up to 60 different parasites in it. That's a staggering number if you consider it.

If that is not treated properly then you can be sure that your family and your pets are going to be a great risk. Even if they barely ever go to the attic, if at all, these organisms can be allowed to grow and prosper within your home. In addition, as the feces dries out the parasites become airborne with the fecal particles and can get into your ventilation system. This puts your entire family at risk, and the insurance company is quite likely to help clean this up to protect you and your family.

If you want to be absolutely sure about this, then there are two things that you need to do. The first of them is to look over your insurance policy to make sure that events like this are covered. This is going to require that you look at that small print to make sure that things are covered in this case. Also, talk to your agent to make sure that he or she can verify that it is covered.

If you find that bird damage is not covered by your insurance policy, you want to add that on if you believe that this can become a serious risk for you. You may live in an area where birds are not a major issue, but there are lots of places where large numbers of birds fly around looking for a place to build a home in. Check to make sure you're covered should they make your home their own.



Also read our other bird tip: How To Keep Pigeons Out Of Your Barn Loft