What You Need to Know About Mining Subsidence Before Buying Home Insurance
Mining is a fine, proud history.
In fact, it's one of the founding occupations that this country was built on! If you live in a mining community or in or around old mines you can enjoy the fact that you're literally living on a piece of history.
You also need to take extra precautions.
Living around mines means that you may be sitting on a ticking time bomb, and you want to make sure that you've got subsidence home insurance to keep you from getting caught in the backlash when that time runs out.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, subsidence is what happens when an old mine finally gives up the ghost.
The pressure of the earth and the millions of buildings we keep insisting on building on it finally catch up to the old support beams.
They give way, and the mine comes crashing shut.
If the mine's been built properly (at least 100 feet underground) this isn't a big deal.
It should have the same effect on your home and your belongings as a minor earthquake-cracks in your drywall, some broken pictures.
Nothing that's going to push you to file home insurance claims with your insurance company.
Mines that haven't been built properly, on the other hand, can do an incredible amount of damage to your home.
If you've got less than 50 feet between your foundation and the top of that abandoned mine you can count on the effects being much, much more severe.
When these mines give out they leave sinkholes and trenches behind.
These gaping holes in the earth can leave your foundation crumbling beneath the weight of your house and you scrambling for a way to get it rebuilt so you can go back to living in your home again.
Ideally, this is something your home insurance is going to cover.
After all, these kinds of disasters are exactly why you pay your premiums every month.
Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple.
It's important to make sure that your homeowners insurance policy is going to cover damages caused by mine subsidence before you sign on the dotted line-and long before an accident leaves you to find out the hard way.
Take a look at your home insurance coverage.
When you bought your insurance you were probably given the choice between an "all perils" and a "named perils" policy.
Named perils only covers those perils listed in your policy, while all perils covers everything but the perils listed in your policy.
As mine subsidence is something that's often excluded from these policies, however, you may find yourself needing to do a little bit of extra legwork to find a company that's willing to offer you that kind of coverage at a price you can afford.
Regardless of what you have to do to get good subsidence coverage, however, it's worth it.
A good subsidence insurance plan will make sure you're never left holding the bag for thousands of dollars in repairs when the bottom quite literally drops out of your home, and that in and of itself is worth every second of legwork you're going to do to find an insurance company willing and able to give you the home insurance coverage you need.
In fact, it's one of the founding occupations that this country was built on! If you live in a mining community or in or around old mines you can enjoy the fact that you're literally living on a piece of history.
You also need to take extra precautions.
Living around mines means that you may be sitting on a ticking time bomb, and you want to make sure that you've got subsidence home insurance to keep you from getting caught in the backlash when that time runs out.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, subsidence is what happens when an old mine finally gives up the ghost.
The pressure of the earth and the millions of buildings we keep insisting on building on it finally catch up to the old support beams.
They give way, and the mine comes crashing shut.
If the mine's been built properly (at least 100 feet underground) this isn't a big deal.
It should have the same effect on your home and your belongings as a minor earthquake-cracks in your drywall, some broken pictures.
Nothing that's going to push you to file home insurance claims with your insurance company.
Mines that haven't been built properly, on the other hand, can do an incredible amount of damage to your home.
If you've got less than 50 feet between your foundation and the top of that abandoned mine you can count on the effects being much, much more severe.
When these mines give out they leave sinkholes and trenches behind.
These gaping holes in the earth can leave your foundation crumbling beneath the weight of your house and you scrambling for a way to get it rebuilt so you can go back to living in your home again.
Ideally, this is something your home insurance is going to cover.
After all, these kinds of disasters are exactly why you pay your premiums every month.
Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple.
It's important to make sure that your homeowners insurance policy is going to cover damages caused by mine subsidence before you sign on the dotted line-and long before an accident leaves you to find out the hard way.
Take a look at your home insurance coverage.
When you bought your insurance you were probably given the choice between an "all perils" and a "named perils" policy.
Named perils only covers those perils listed in your policy, while all perils covers everything but the perils listed in your policy.
As mine subsidence is something that's often excluded from these policies, however, you may find yourself needing to do a little bit of extra legwork to find a company that's willing to offer you that kind of coverage at a price you can afford.
Regardless of what you have to do to get good subsidence coverage, however, it's worth it.
A good subsidence insurance plan will make sure you're never left holding the bag for thousands of dollars in repairs when the bottom quite literally drops out of your home, and that in and of itself is worth every second of legwork you're going to do to find an insurance company willing and able to give you the home insurance coverage you need.
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