Homeowners insurance covers your home, your personal property and protects you against law suits.  One of the most misunderstood issues with homeowners insurance is regarding property that may be your responsibility that is under ground in your yard.  Most people believe that these pipes are covered by their policy.  Unfortunately, water pipes leading to your home and sewage pipes leading away from your home are excluded under most homeowners policies.  Repairing these pipes is very expensive.  Just digging them up can cost a two or three thousand dollars. What is really frustrating, is that this is not an exposure that you can even see much less maintain.  One day everything is working fine, the next your front yard is a marsh from thousands of gallons of water (that you are paying for) and you are looking for a plumber who has a back hoe.  That’s the bad news.

The good news is you can purchase coverage for these pipes from a very unexpected source.  When I first learned of it, I was surprised at the source of the coverage and amazed by how little it cost.  I purchased coverage for my pipes from my local electrical utility company.  Here in Fairfax County, VA that is Dominion Power.  The cost was just a few dollars per month.

Make no mistake, this is a good deal and I recommend you call Dominion or go on line right now and add the coverage to your service.  Very few insurance companies are willing to take on the exposure and I am certain that none would do it for the prices offered by Dominion.  A few extra dollars on your electric bill is a small price to pay for some real peace of mind.