Your Insurance Company Might Help Watch Your House While You're Away

Your Insurance Company Might Help Watch Your House While You're Away

You're spending the winter in Florida, enjoying the sunshine while everyone back home is dealing with freezing temperatures.

Then your furnace quits.

The temperature inside your house starts dropping, but you're hundreds of miles away and have no idea anything is wrong.

Wouldn't it be nice if your phone could tell you what was happening before you came home to frozen pipes?

Here's something you might not know. **Some homeowners insurance companies offer devices that monitor temperature or water problems in your home, sometimes at no additional cost.**

And you might already qualify for one.

What can these devices actually do?

There are a few different types, and they don't all work the same way.

**Temperature monitors** can send an alert to your phone if the temperature inside your home drops below a certain level.

If your furnace quits in the middle of January, you have an opportunity to get someone over there before your pipes freeze.

**Water leak sensors** can detect moisture where it shouldn't be.

Think about the supply lines under your kitchen sink, the washing machine hoses, or the area around your water heater.

You can place sensors in those areas so you're notified when they detect water.

**Water flow monitors** work a little differently. They monitor the water moving through your plumbing and can alert you to unusual activity.

If you're in Florida and nobody should be using water at your house, an alert about continuous water flow is something you'd definitely want to investigate.

Some systems can even shut off the water automatically, although that's a separate feature you'll want to confirm before purchasing anything.

Why would an insurance company offer these devices?

Think about the difference between discovering a leak after ten minutes and discovering it after ten weeks.

The longer water runs through your house, the more damage it can cause.

Your insurance company would much rather help you catch a problem early than deal with a major water damage claim.

And nobody wants to come home to a flooded house, discover mold growing behind the walls, and find out they have to live somewhere else for months while their home is torn apart and repaired.

That's why some insurance companies offer programs that provide or help pay for monitoring equipment.

Not every company offers these programs, and the equipment and eligibility requirements vary. But it's worth finding out what your company offers before spending your own money.

Where should you put the sensors?

This is where a little planning makes a difference.

If you're using water leak sensors, think about the places where a leak could go unnoticed:

• Under the kitchen and bathroom sinks

• Near the washing machine

• Beside the water heater

• Around the sump pump

• Near other plumbing connections that could leak

A sensor under the kitchen sink isn't going to tell you about water leaking from the upstairs bathroom.

And a temperature monitor in your living room won't necessarily tell you how cold it is inside a cabinet against an exterior wall.

Choose locations based on the problems you're actually trying to detect, and follow the manufacturer's placement instructions.

Test everything before you leave

Don't install a device the night before vacation and assume it's working.

Set it up ahead of time. Make sure it's connected to your Wi-Fi if required, and test whether the alerts actually reach your phone.

Check whether it uses batteries, needs an electrical outlet, or stops working if your internet connection goes down.

If the device allows you to add another person to receive notifications, consider including someone you trust who lives nearby.

That brings us to something important.

An alert doesn't fix the problem

Let's say you're sitting by the pool and your phone tells you the temperature inside your house has dropped to 45 degrees.

That's valuable information.

But now somebody needs to find out why.

Before you leave, arrange for someone you trust to have a working key or door code. Show them where the thermostat and main water shutoff are, and give them the number of your heating contractor or plumber.

A monitoring device can tell you there's a problem. Having someone who can respond is what makes that information useful.

Before you buy anything, ask one question

**Does my homeowners insurance company offer any home-monitoring devices or programs?**

You can ask your agent to find out what's available through your particular company, whether there's a cost, and what you need to qualify.

If your insurer doesn't offer a program, you can still purchase monitoring equipment on your own.

Just make sure you're buying something that addresses the risks you're concerned about and that you understand how it works.

And remember, having a monitoring device doesn't guarantee an insurance claim will be covered. Coverage still depends on your policy and what caused the damage.

You don't have to be a snowbird to benefit from these devices, either. A water leak can happen while you're at work just as easily as when you're on vacation.

But if you're lucky enough to spend the winter somewhere warm, wouldn't it be nice to know somebody—or something—is keeping an eye on the house while you're gone?