Pests and Insurance

The general position

Damage by Vermin Is Usually Out

Most standard home policies exclude damage caused by vermin, rodents, insects or infestation, and most exclude the cost of the pest control itself. The reasoning insurers give is that it is gradual damage and preventable by maintenance, which is the same reasoning behind excluding wear and tear and damp.

So the default answer is no, and it is worth knowing that before you spend time on a claim.

But "damage caused by vermin" is doing specific work in that sentence, and it is worth reading your own wording rather than assuming, because the exclusions are not all drafted the same way and some are considerably narrower than others.

The exceptions

Where Claims Sometimes Succeed

Escape of water. This is the big one. If a rat or a squirrel chews a plastic water pipe and the resulting leak damages ceilings, floors or possessions, the water damage is often covered even where the pest damage is not. The chewed pipe is excluded; the ruined ceiling below it frequently is not.

Fire. Same logic. Fire damage is a core insured peril, and a fire caused by chewed wiring is usually covered even though replacing the cable would not have been.

Accidental damage, if you have it, sometimes picks up things the main policy excludes. Depends heavily on the wording.

Landlord and commercial policies vary much more than domestic ones, and some commercial policies include pest control cover or offer it as an add-on.

The pattern: the consequence is more likely to be covered than the cause.

Giving a claim its best chance

Five Things

• Photograph everything before anything is disturbed. This is the single most useful thing, and the one people skip because they want it cleaned up.
• Get the right trade's report. An electrician's report on chewed cable, a plumber's on a chewed pipe, a drainage report on a defect. A pest controller's note that the wiring looked alright is not an inspection.
• Keep the damaged item where that is practical.
• Tell them promptly. Late notification is a standard reason for reduced or refused claims.
• Be accurate about timing. Insurers separate sudden events from gradual ones, and overstating how suddenly something appeared is a poor idea.

We can provide our part of that as a matter of course: what was found, where, what was done and when, with photographs. Ask at the time rather than afterwards.

What we do not do is deal with insurers on anyone's behalf. We are not loss assessors and we do not handle claims — what we can do is make sure you have the evidence in a form you can submit.

The other direction

Where Pests Affect Cover Itself

Two situations worth knowing about.

Unoccupied property. Most policies restrict cover after a property has been empty for 30 to 60 days, and an infestation establishing in an empty house is a common and expensive discovery. If you are leaving somewhere empty, tell the insurer and get somebody to look at it.

Failure to maintain. An insurer can decline a claim where damage resulted from a defect you knew about and did not fix. Which means a pest report recommending work, sitting unactioned in a drawer, can work against you later.

That cuts the other way too: acting on a recommendation and keeping the invoice is evidence of maintenance, and it is worth keeping with the policy documents rather than in the kitchen drawer.

Short answers

Drain Blocker Questions

Going further

Drain and Rat Guides