And I am a Nigerian prince in need of a small assistance in moving $20M out of my country, for which I just need a little help from you....

At least it's an unusual scam.

I imagine any damage that occurs from a burst water line would just be covered under your house insurance. What's the point of this additional coverage?
Is this letter from your insurance company? Or just random junk mail?

rwiegand I really do like your reply.

It was a hard copy brought by the postal service letter....

Thanks for reading everyone, I have decided to file that letter in to file 13.

Yes, home owners insurance will help.

Moni

My utility (phone, water, electric, I don't remember which) offers the same thing. The idea is that the water company does not cover anything from the meter (or sewer entrance/tap/whatever) to the house. Any issues would be paid by the homeowner, and digging is expensive. I suspect this would be more useful on the drain side than the inlet side.

I'm not sure if homeowner's insurance would cover a burst inlet pipe outside of the house. That would be worth checking.

I'm in MD. My next door neighbor just paid $3800 to replace water line from street shutoff to house. House is 40 years old. Replaced copper with plastic.

Homeowners insurance does not cover cost.

My oil company sells a plan covering the oil tank in the basement. I passed.

Saltidawg,

Did your neighbour's pipe burst or were they replacing it for another reason (eg. for better water pressure)?
I'm not disputing that the homeowner's insurance wouldn't pay for a burst pipe, I'm just surprised.

This post was edited by greg_2010 on Wed, Oct 8, 14 at 11:05

The pipes in our slab started leaking (inside the house). Since this is our second slab leak we decided to repipe the house instead of putting another Band-Aid on the pipes (house is 40 years old). And no, homeowners doesn't help cover any costs. They said re-piping is considered routine maintenance but they would pay if the pipes flooded and ruined cabinets, carpet etc (then they would pay for the cabinets or carpet, NOT the fixing of the pipes). We have State Farm.

Our city's mayor signed off on letter from private company offering that insurance--mainly because there are many seniors in our town who own homes that are 40-60 yrs old--and likely going to have plumbing from meter to house fail at some point...some of them probably don't have the money to cover the repairs/remodel that might be required...

Replacing any plumbing from the meter to the house is not covered by any homeowner's policy
We passed on the insurance thinking our house was too new to have problems like that...
Then my husband found water in the meter box--drained standing water there and in the sprinkler connection box just above it. Waited overnight and found more water in boxes.
Called plumber.
We had a leak in several places on original plumbing from meter to house--
our house is 10 yrs old or so...
the plumber who came out told my husband that often the original lines are laid and the dirt subsides or is compacted during construction and the angle of any connections can be stressed and over time will leak--
of course we are talking about plastic vs metal lines since it is a recent build.
There were also two or three sections that were not glued together to form a secure/watertight bond in addition to the cracked sections...
It cost us $700 and the plumber spent about 4-6 hours--one guy--
had to dig out section about 4 ft deep and find where the leak was--
we were lucky it was easy to find...

"Did your neighbour's pipe burst or were they replacing it for another reason (eg. for better water pressure)?"

40 year old house - copper line. Started leaking, utility came out and located the leak - house side of street shutoff and thus the homeowner's responsibility.

Checked with insurance, not covered. Cost $3800 to replace with plastic.

Well I learn something new every day! :) Thanks.
I still wouldn't buy the insurance. But then again, I like to live dangerously.

I guess I see the logic of what lisadlu said. The secondary damage that it causes could be covered, but the actual replacement of the line isn't.

greg 2010,

I just checked with my neighbor. She had called her insurance company and verified it was not a covered loss.

Water damage inside would be covered... didn't have any. Leak was out near the street - about three feet this side of the street shutoff.

We are i MD and my neighbor and also me insure with USAA.

I believe the coverage is driven by state requirements.

Two more anecdotes:

My parents had to replace the sewer line from the house to the street. It had become clogged with roots. Not insured, a few grand.

I had a friend who had moved in to a new house (less than 5 years). He kept seeing water in the basement which was going out the sump pump. He traced it to the incoming water line. It was flowing around the insulation wrap. Apparently there was a break just outside the foundation. Required digging up the bushes next to the foundation and repairing the pipe. Not insured.

So this insurance would be $60/yr against the low probability of a several-thousand-dollar incident occurring at your house.

No, I don't have it either.