How we will help you with your lightning damage insurance claim

Lighting losses are one of the most problematic insurance perils you can encounter. Just as you explained, things can be out all over the place. In addition, other items not currently showing damage may very well fail later due to heat, cracking of circuit boards, and overloading of electrical parts due to the high current charge to electronic parts that were not design ed for this type of load. Yes you should file a claim and advocate for a fair settlement. Get your own electrical engineer or depending on the items, an electronics specialist to inspect each and every building and item.

There are four basic types of lightning damage: physical damage, secondary effect damage, electromagnetic effect damage, and damage caused by changes in ground reference potential. Each of these types of damage is eligible for coverage within lighting strike damage claims. Physical damage physical damage is caused by current flow and heat. A typical lightning strike in the united states conveys between 25,000 and 45,000 amps, with the higher amperage strikes occurring in the south, where the storms build higher. Lightning is high current flowing over a short period of time. Secondary effect damage the secondary effect of a lightning strike can cause arcing and induced currents.

The national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa) estimates that lightning strikes the ground on average about 20 million times per year in the united states. In 2020, those strikes resulted in 17 lightning-related fatality reports. In addition, lightning strikes cost $2. 1 billion in insured losses in 2020, according to the insurance information institute. Claims data from state farm® found that in 2020 the average claim cost for a lightning strike was nearly $12,000. Many times, these strikes can land on or near residences, wreaking havoc on the home's electrical system, appliances or electronics. Fortunately, by following these pointers, you may help safeguard your property — and yourself — from the damage inflicted by lightning.

The u. S. Is no stranger to lightning and its estimated these forces of mother nature cost homeowners over a billion dollars in damage each year, according to a recently released report by the insurance information institute. The institute found that only a small fraction of the more 100 million lightning strikes reported in the u. S. Annually cause damage, but their destruction can be costly researchers said in 2021, claims by u. S. Homeowners topped $1. 3 billion, but that was significantly down from 2020, when insured losses were more than $2 billion. The record-breaking 2020 year was due in part to california’s czu august lightning complex fires, which were caused by a storm’s lightning.

Will your insurance cover lightning damage?

Since there are many types of events that can damage your home, such as hurricanes and fires, the threat of lightning might not be a peril about which you are particularly concerned. This might not even be an issue people think about when they purchase a homeowner's insurance policy. The fact is that lightning can be the direct cause of substantial loss and can contribute to additional types of loss. For example, fire or electrical damage can be a secondary result of lightning striking to your home. When lightning strikes your residence, the temperature generated can rise to as high as 50,000 degrees fahrenheit.

Was your home or business hit by lightning that caused damage?  is your insurance company refusing to pay for the damage or low balling your claim?  this could include damage to your home and/or building as well as damage to the interior items like electronics and computers. Make sure that you don’t just accept what the insurance company is telling you. Make sure you have your claim reviewed for free by christopher ligori & associates so that you know you are being treated fairly. I have seen homes destroyed by fire due to a lightning strike or interior damage due to lightning traveling through wires and destroying expensive electronic equipment like tv’s and computers.

Damage from hail, flooding and tornados are our greatest concerns during a thunderstorm. But let’s not forget about lightning. Many of us believe being struck by lightning is rare. Though this is true, we still need to be protected in the event it strikes on our property. Lighting can cause grave amounts of damage to a home or business. These electrical currents could cause a fire, damage a roof and destroy appliances. Filing an insurance claim will help you recover the money you need to repair the damage, but you will have to deal with your insurance company first.

Lightning has the potential to cause severe damage to homes and businesses throughout florida. Lightning can damage concrete, walls, and glass, and destroy a property’s electrical wiring. The average cost of these damages amounted to nearly $30,000 per insurance claim in 2020. The insurance company may provide the lowest compensation possible. This makes it imperative for home and business owners to reach out to a public adjuster for a free inspection and evalution if they suspect lightning damage has occurred.

Understanding Lightning Damage Insurance Claims

Did you know that flatonia, texas, is the lightning strike capital of the us ? according to statistics, in 2021, the city was struck by lightning 1,043 times. That’s not surprising since texas experienced the highest number of lightning strikes last year, 41 million to be exact. This is why the number of fire and lightning damage claims in texas exceeds the national average. There’s one problem, though. Insurance companies don’t believe in lightning strikes much, and it can be hard to prove how your house was damaged. If the insurance adjuster claims there was no lightning, it will be your task to prove there was one.

Abstract insurance claims resulting from lightning damage in colorado, utah, and wyoming were analyzed during the period from 1987 to 1993. Most claims were from personal accounts, while some were commercial. Lightning damage in the three states resulted in an annual average of 6755 claims being filed. Most claims were from colorado, and more than half were from the denver metropolitan area. Over $7 million a year in lightning losses occurred in the three states for these types of insurance policies when a $150 deductible was included; most losses were in colorado. The average value paid per claim was $916 for all three states and types of claims; commercial claims averaged $1369, and personal claims averaged $873.

Lightning strikes the earth about 100 times every second and can heat the surrounding air to up to 50,000 degrees fahrenheit ( the weather channel ). As such a destructive force, it’s no wonder lightning damage caused $790 million in homeowners insurance losses in 2015 and an average of almost $8,000 per paid claim ( insurance information institute ). Moreover, these amounts are expected to rise as the average number and value of electronics within a home increases. The rising cost of lightning damage claims illustrates the importance to insurance carriers of properly identifying the peril prior to making a settlement decision.

Yes, homeowners insurance does cover lightning damage. However, a lightning strike insurance claim will always be met with resistance by the insurance company. As most florida homeowners have experienced in the past, homeowners insurance claims for storm damage are often a challenge. Insurance companies are quick to deny lightning insurance claims because they will say that many of the items you have claimed were damaged were unrelated to the strike or that there is no proof that a strike occurred. It will be up to the homeowner to prove that the lightning strike occurred and that the damage was a direct result.

Tell Us About Your Claim

Other languages generally, you may deduct casualty and theft losses relating to your home, household items, and vehicles on your federal income tax return if the loss is caused by a federally declared disaster. You may not deduct casualty and theft losses covered by insurance, unless you file a timely claim for reimbursement and you reduce the loss by the amount of any reimbursement or expected reimbursement.

Identify lightning-related claims see how many lighting strikes occurred at a property on a specific date of loss and verify the claim. Benchmark reports provide the top twenty closest lightning strikes on a particular event. You can also use the reports to verify contents and property claims, including losses from tree falls, power surges, or structure fires.

Property claims due to lightning are not very common in ireland but there a number of cases that happen each year. A strike of lightning can be extremely severe and can have devastating and sometimes fatal consequences. Even if your property is properly earthed a lightning strike still has the potential to cause significant damage to your property. In most cases a lightning strike may only affect the electrical components of the property such as the main consumer board, sockets, tv points, fridge, washing machine, tv’s, computers, etc but it can also in some instances cause damage to the building itself either by igniting a fire or by leaving severe cracking to walls and plastering.

Lightning strike: a bolt of lightning enters and passes through your home or other property on its way from the atmosphere to the ground. This type of lightning typically causes the most damage including fire and charring. "this is generally the easiest claim to collect, since the damage is clearly evident," says needelman. Near miss: lightning strikes near the home but does not hit the structure directly. In this case, the damage is usually less. It can be more difficult for the insurance company to determine the cause of damage in such cases. Artificially generated current, such as sparks from a power company's electrical lines or transformers, can create damage similar to a near miss but is typically excluded from homeowners policies.

How to make a claim for lightning damage

A lightning strike can potentially create a fire in a home or commercial property. Notwithstanding, most lightning damage happens from an electrical surge that can ruin sensitive appliances, electronics computers, and wiring inside the walls, phone systems, and the building’s electrical system which can even shock and injure occupants. In case the lightning-related damage is massive, a business might not be able to function or the home could be left uninhabitable. Public insurance adjuster can evaluate the destruction – to the inner electrical system along with the structure itself – and assist you to settle their claim in a well-timed manner to make sure you get the settlement you ought to get.

Determining if lightning was the true cause of loss to your insured’s hvac unit can be a complicated task, particularly when lightning is one of the most frequently claimed perils. According to hvaci’s annual claims report , last year lightning was the most frequently claimed peril for residential assignments, although the actual cause of loss was commonly found to be high voltage surge or wear & tear. Lightning damage symptoms are often erroneously confused with other peril’s symptoms, making these types of claims particularly challenging to tackle. Our hvac lightning damage guide will assist you in determining if your insured’s hvac equipment was truly damaged by lightning by highlighting visual evidence that commonly points to lightning damage and outlining the most common cause of loss characteristics between lightning, surge, and wear & tear damages.

Lighting strikes are a surprisingly common occurrence in some parts of the united states – central florida for example, which averages more than 100 days of lightning storms per year – and the damage they do to property can be very serious. Fires are the most obvious types of damage, but other possible damages include the “frying” of a home or building’s electrical system (requiring a full re-wiring) and pinhole leaks in the plumbing (which can cause persistent leaks that are very hard to track down and fix). Luckily, lighting strike property damage is covered by the majority of property insurance policies.

Much like claims for break-in, theft, and vandalism , contents claims from lightning strike can be complicated and voluminous. The difference though is that all of the items are likely still in your possession. With contents claims related to lightning strikes, your insurance company expects you to compile a list of the damaged items, citing the make and model, as well as the place you purchased it, the price you purchased it for, and the approximate replacement cost. That's just the start. After that, they may send an engineer to test all of the items (either to confirm what we already know, or with the intent of claiming it was broken/damaged before the lightning strike).