A homeowners policy usually covers water that escapes suddenly and by accident from inside the house: a burst pipe, a split washing machine hose, a water heater that gives way. It usually excludes flood and surface water, water that backs up through a sewer or drain or overflows a sump, groundwater seeping through the foundation, and leaks that went on for weeks or months. Flood is a separate policy with federal rules of its own. Those are the usual answers under the standard homeowners form; your own policy’s wording decides.
General information, not legal or insurance advice, and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Your policy’s wording and your state’s law decide, and both change. For help with your claim, your state insurance department’s consumer line and legal aid are free.
The seven guides below can be read in order, or go straight to the one that matches what happened. Each ends with what to gather and what can’t wait.
Three questions that decide most water claims
Many homeowners policies are built on the ISO HO-3 standard form or an insurer’s version of it; our guides read its 2000 (HO 00 03 10 00) and 2011 (HO 00 03 05 11) editions. On water, it keeps asking three questions.
- Where did the water come from? Water escaping from your plumbing, heating, air conditioning, a fire sprinkler or a household appliance gets an exception that usually brings it into cover. Flood, surface water, backup through sewers and drains, sump overflow and water below the ground fall under the water exclusion, which applies “whether or not driven by wind”.
- How long did it go on? A leak that ran for months meets the exclusions for wear and tear, deterioration, rust and corrosion, rot and mold. Many insurers’ forms add a seepage clause with a time period; the Texas Department of Insurance found three versions in forms used in Texas in 2018, only one of them 14 days.
- What failed? The form usually pays for the damage the water caused and for opening a wall or floor to reach the pipe, but not for the pipe or appliance the water came from.
The house (Coverage A) is covered unless an exclusion applies; your belongings (Coverage C) only for named perils, which are narrower.
Start here: water damage in general
Our guide to whether homeowners insurance covers water damage is the map for the whole section. It has a table of common losses with the clause behind each, the seepage wordings that decide many slow-leak denials, the heat-or-drain condition for frozen pipes, and rain through a storm-damaged roof. If you read one page here, read that one.
Burst pipes, slab leaks and appliances
A plumbing bill usually splits into three parts under the standard form: the water damage, the tear-out needed to reach the pipe, and the pipe itself. The first two are usually covered; the third usually isn’t. Our page on burst pipes and what homeowners insurance covers for plumbing goes through that split with a hypothetical worked example, and covers slab leaks, water heaters, buried lines and the endorsements to look for.
Ask the plumber to write the cause on the invoice and to price the pipe repair separately from opening and closing the building; that split follows the policy’s clauses.
Mold after a leak
The standard form lists mold, fungus and wet rot among the causes it doesn’t insure, then makes a narrow exception for mold hidden inside walls, ceilings or floors after an accidental leak from household systems or appliances. Mold from humidity, a slow leak left alone, flooding or a sewer backup is usually excluded, and some insurers attach a mold or “fungi” endorsement that sets a lower limit or removes the cover. Our guide to whether homeowners insurance covers mold sets out the exception, two real endorsements and the state rules we read in Florida, Texas and Illinois. The EPA’s advice to dry water-damaged areas within 24 to 48 hours also helps you meet the policy’s duty to protect the property.
Foundations
Settling, shifting soil, groundwater pressure, frost, earthquake and sinkholes are usually excluded by name. A fire or a car hitting the house usually is covered. A sudden leak under the slab sits in between: the water damage and opening the slab are usually covered, but foundation movement can still fall under the earth movement exclusion. Our page on whether homeowners insurance covers foundation repair explains the clauses that decide most foundation claims, Florida’s sinkhole law, mine subsidence cover in Ohio and Illinois, and Connecticut’s suit rule for crumbling foundations.
Sewer backup and sump overflow
Water that comes up through a floor drain, toilet or tub, or overflows a sump, is excluded in the standard form. Cover usually comes only from a water backup endorsement, up to its own limit. A flood policy covers a backup only when there is a flood in the area and the flood is the proximate cause, so a backup on a dry day sits outside both policies unless you have the endorsement. The buried sewer line itself is a second, separate gap. Our guide to sewer backup and homeowners insurance lists what to check in a backup endorsement, who owns the sewer line, and service line cover.
Flood: a separate policy
The standard homeowners form excludes flood, surface water, waves and tidal water, and its 2011 edition names storm surge and water released from a dam or levee. Flood cover comes from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) or a private flood insurer. In a hurricane, wind and rain through an opening the wind made usually go to the homeowners policy and rising water to the flood policy, so you may have two claims for one storm, each on its own clocks.
Our guide to flooding and the homeowners flood exclusion covers the cases at the edges, such as water that floods only your lot and may meet neither policy’s terms, what an NFIP policy covers, its fixed list for basements, the usual 30-day wait for new cover, and why FEMA aid is not flood insurance.
Filing an NFIP flood claim
An NFIP claim runs on federal clocks, not your state’s. Under the Standard Flood Insurance Policy, a federal regulation, you have 60 days from the date of loss to send a signed, sworn proof of loss unless FEMA extends that in writing for your event. You have 60 calendar days from a written denial to appeal to FEMA, and one year from the insurer’s first written denial to sue, in federal district court only. An appeal does not pause that year. Our guide to NFIP flood claims, proof of loss and appeals explains what starts each clock, what the proof of loss must contain, and the routes after a denial.
What every water claim asks of you in the first days
The policy’s Duties After Loss condition asks much the same whatever the water’s source.
- Stop the water and protect the property. The standard form requires you to protect the property from further damage and keep a record of what that costs, and its neglect exclusion removes loss from failing to use all reasonable means to save property.
- Photograph before you clean up. Every wet room, the source, the water line and damaged belongings. Keep the failed part.
- Dry out quickly and keep every receipt.
- Report the claim promptly, in writing, to every insurer that may be involved, and write down every call.
- If the insurer says no, ask which clause. Ask in writing, and read it against your own policy.
For a homeowners claim, the standard form gives 60 days after the insurer’s request to send a sworn proof of loss (it doesn’t say calendar or business days) and says a suit must start within two years after the date of loss. State law often changes the suit limit, and some states set their own claim clocks: our claim deadlines by state shows the rules we have read. Your deductible comes off what is covered; the deductible calculator shows the arithmetic.
Your next step
Get the full policy with every endorsement, and look for water backup, seepage, service line, fungi or mold wording, and any flood policy’s declarations page. Then open the guide above that matches what happened.
What can’t wait: drying the house, written notice to each insurer, any proof-of-loss date your insurer gives you, the suit limit in your policy and your state, and for a flood claim the NFIP’s 60 days from the date of loss. If you disagree with an insurer’s answer, your state insurance department’s consumer line is free; for legal advice, contact legal aid or a licensed attorney through your state bar’s referral service. We can’t answer questions about individual claims.
Sources checked on 8 November 2026 in the guides linked above, including the ISO HO-3 specimens and the NFIP policy on eCFR.
