Mercury Insurance is introducing an enhancement to its homeowners’ insurance policy that would grant coverage to customers’ service lines.
The Service Line Protection enhancement offers up to $10,000 per occurrence for damage to exterior and underground service lines. Service lines covered by the enhancement include water piping, sewer piping, ground loop piping, piping for heating, piping for compressed air, and power lines.
“A majority of Americans can’t afford a surprise repair bill, let alone the cost to repair a service line that averages $4,428,” said Mercury Insurance chief claims officer Randall Petro. “Mercury Insurance’s Service Line Protection helps homeowners by covering the gaps in standard insurance policies and providing an extra security blanket.”
Service Line Protection is now available to customers in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, a release said.
According to the latest report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, an estimated 240,000 water main line breaks occur each year. These pipe breaks are partly due to aging pipe infrastructure throughout the country, and partly because of frigid winter temperatures. Although a homeowner’s city is responsible for main line breaks, homeowners are responsible for their own service lines, which also experience line breaks for the same reasons.
