It is general knowledge that insurance policies have exclusions that limit when and what circumstances an Insurance Company will provide coverage for a claim that may be presented. With the concern surrounding Mold contamination and its potential related health hazards, most insurance policies today contain exclusions that eliminate, or substantially limit, insurance coverage for mold. These mold exclusions are also found in your contractor / vendor’s General Liability Insurance Policy.
Why should you care? If you have water damage to your property, for example as a result of a broken pipe, roof leak, or flooding, and the vendor fails to properly dry and mitigate your property resulting in mold contamination, there will be no insurance coverage to protect you and pay for this mold damage. While your vendor has Liability Coverage, your vendor’s insurance coverage does not provide adequate protection to you. In addition to the mold exclusion, your vendor / contractor’s General Liability Insurance policy also bars coverage for any claims involving Asbestos, lead, or almost any other environmental exposure.
The Pennsylvania Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act required by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office unfortunately does not recognize this potential lapse in protection to the consumer. This Act only requires contractors to show evidence of basic insurance coverage under a General Liability policy to be licensed in the state. As well, the Better Business Bureau has never recognized the need for specialized insurance coverage for most contractors.
Your mitigation / restoration contractor should have a separate additional insurance policy, a Contractor Pollution Liability Policy, that provides protection to you for the indoor environmental exposures that are not provided under a General Liability Insurance policy. You should ask for proof of this insurance coverage. This additional insurance is usually expensive, so many companies do not have this coverage which places their customers at risk.
Disaster Blaster has always had this additional, and very important insurance coverage and you can always be assured that Disaster Blaster is adequately and properly insured.
Don’t risk hiring a contractor that doesn’t protect you, contact your local Disaster Blaster today!
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