Most insurance carriers have an exclusion in their insurance policy for long term seepage for water damage. Under this Exclusion of the Policy, they usually have specific language to deny your insurance claim for water damage, or plumbing leaks caused by long term seepage. Seepage, by definition, is the repeated or continuous leakage or seepage of water over a period of days, weeks, months, years, or decades. This can happen in many places around your home or business, such as plumbing in your concrete foundation slab, under a sink, plumbing Leaks in walls, a wax seal leak, shower pan leak, and more.
Examples of Sudden and Accidental Water Damage would be a burst pipe, an appliance malfunction like a dishwasher supply line or discharge pipe, or any unexpected discharge of steam or water from a variety of sources. For some insureds their insurance policies will provide coverage for this type of Sudden water loss. It requires that the cause of loss is “accidental” and “sudden.” So not intentional which could be deemed as fraud and not detected for long periods of time. However, in Florida, some of the long term seepage claims can now be argued for coverage. Other states may have this ability to be argued as well.
In 2018 a partial summary judgment awarded in Hicks vs. American Integrity Insurance Company coverage for long term seepage transformed the water damage insurance claim standard in The State of Florida
Many policies in Florida have language that states, “We do not insure for loss caused by constant or repeated seepage or leakage of water over a period of 14 or more days.”
If you read the case that has a link provided below, there is a partial summary judgment in Hicks favor provided that for water losses occurring after the first thirteen days, the burden will be on AIIC (The Insurance Carrier) to prove that a particular loss was sustained after the thirteenth day and is therefore not covered under the language of the exclusion provision.
Here is the link from Find Law to read more: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-district-court-of-appeal/1890216.html
You will find it this case precedent reads, “We therefore reverse the summary judgment entered in favor of AIIC and remand this case to the trial court to enter partial summary judgment in Hicks’s favor on the sole issue of coverage within the first thirteen days of the leak, the extent of the losses to be determined at trial. As for losses occurring after the first thirteen days, the burden will be on AIIC to prove that a particular loss was sustained after the thirteenth day and is therefore not covered under the language of the exclusion provision.
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