What Homeowners Insurance Does Not Protect in Colorado

Colorado homeowners · What the form leaves out

Flood is the gap. Wildfire is usually a fire.

A standard homeowners policy does not cover flood: water that comes from outside, a creek, a street, or overflow. Earth movement, including landslide and mudslide, is also commonly excluded. Wildfire is different. Fire is a covered peril on a typical form. The hard part in Colorado is whether a company will write the house, and whether the limit is enough to rebuild, not whether “fire” is missing from the policy.

Outside water is not a burst pipe. Sudden water from a plumbing line inside the house can be covered. Water that enters from the ground or a waterway is flood, and it needs its own policy.

The Texas twin of this question: what most Texas homeowners policies do not protect. Colorado flood: flood insurance in Colorado and FloodSmart.

Earth movement and backup are not the dwelling limit

A hillside that moves, or mud that comes with it, is usually an earth-movement exclusion, not a flood claim and not a fire claim. Sewer or sump backup is often excluded or capped by a separate endorsement with its own limit. That limit does not grow to match Coverage A. The base policy: Colorado homeowners. Other gaps: common gaps and myths.

Wildfire can be covered and still unpaid in full

If fire is covered, the check still stops at the dwelling limit, and many forms only pay replacement cost when the house is insured to about 80 percent of rebuild cost. Smoke, a civil authority order, and trees are narrower. A company can also non-renew a foothills roof. That is availability, not an exclusion for fire. wildfire and Colorado wildfire insurance. Price is a separate article: why Colorado rates move.

Ask which of these three is actually excluded on this form: flood, earth movement, or backup. Ask an agent or get a quote.