Homeowner's Insurance: Spoiled Food After an Outage

The most popular type of homeowner's insurance sold in North Carolina to owners of single occupancy dwellings is what's called an HO3 Special Form Policy. This is the one that most people choose to satisfy the requirements of their mortgage holders. This type of policy is known as a hybrid since it provides “open perils” coverage for your dwelling but only “named perils” coverage for your personal belongings. It's not the most comprehensive homeowner's insurance policy available but represents the most economical way of complying with the insurance requirements of most mortgage lenders. An HO3 Special Form Policy can also be broadened in its coverage by the addition of special endorsements or riders if more coverage or higher limits are desired.

Sixteen Named Perils

The open perils coverage your HO3 Special Form Policy includes for your dwelling provides that all perils are covered except those specifically excluded in the exclusions portion of the policy. There may be dozens of exclusions, but since each individual homeowner's insurance policy may be unique, the only way to be sure of what's not covered in your insurance contract is to read and understand it. Almost all HO3 policies will have some typical exclusions, however, including floods, earthquakes, war, neglect, wear and tear and power failures, but there may be many more as well.

The named perils section that applies to your personal possessions will consist of a list of perils for which you're covered. In a standard policy, this list typically contains 16 perils such as fire or lightning, windstorm or hail, freezing, falling objects, vandalism, explosion and more. You'll notice that power outages and the spoiled food that may result from them aren't listed as named perils. This would seem to answer the question of whether spoiled food after a power outage is covered by your homeowners insurance. The fact is, though: like many questions related to home insurance, the answer is, “it depends.”

When Spoiled Food May Be Covered

In general, your insurance may cover the cost of spoiled food from a power outage (often limited to $250-$500) if the cause of the outage is a covered peril. For example, if the cause is a fallen tree in a windstorm or a lightning strike, it's likely covered, but not if the outage is caused by flooding or an earthquake. Your deductible applies, meaning the filing of a claim may not make sense.