What Is a Wear and Tear Exclusion?
Let me explain what a wear and tear exclusion really is. It's a clause in your insurance policy that says the normal wear and tear on whatever you're insuring isn't covered. You see, insurance is built to handle those unexpected hits, not the stuff that's bound to happen over time. If policies started covering everything that just wears out, insurers would jack up premiums to cover all those costs, and nobody wants that.
Key Takeaways
- A wear and tear exclusion in your insurance contract means losses from normal deterioration of the property aren't covered.
- The list of exclusions in a policy can be pretty long.
- You and your insurer might not see eye to eye on whether wear and tear played a role in the damage.
Understanding the Wear and Tear Exclusion
These exclusions are standard stuff. Take your car insurance— it won't pay to replace parts that just wear out from use, like brake pads, timing belts, or water pumps. It only kicks in for surprises like crashes.
The point of these exclusions is to stop insurers from getting stuck with bills when you haven't kept up with maintenance, repairs, or replacements on worn-out parts. If you're smart, you'll self-insure for this by stashing some cash each month in an emergency fund to handle those predictable fixes.
Exclusions Are Specified
What gets covered comes down to the exclusions and limits laid out in your contract. That list is usually extensive.
Insurers might throw 'wear and tear' at a claim to dodge paying out. In disasters like floods or tornadoes, they'll often point to some preexisting issue and call it wear and tear to blame the damage on that.
Other typical exclusions include shoddy maintenance, old damage, factory defects, or bad installation. Roof claims are a hot spot for arguments—insurers might say the roof's age or upkeep caused the problem, not the hailstorm.
Important Note on Older Properties
Damage to older properties often sparks fights between you and your insurer.
When Parties Disagree
If you can't agree on a claim, it could lead to a bad faith lawsuit against the insurer. This happens a lot with older commercial buildings. The insurer inspects before issuing the policy and might even say it's in good shape, but then they still try to use the wear and tear excuse when a claim comes in.
Wear and Tear Exclusion and Anti-Concurrent Cause Language
A wear and tear exclusion doesn't include what's called 'anti-concurrent cause' lead-in language. That means if damage comes from a mix of causes—some covered, some not—the whole thing might not be covered. But an Illinois court ruled back in 1983 that without that specific language, if a covered and uncovered peril team up to cause a loss, the entire loss gets covered.
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