Does homeowners insurance cover fences?

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Homeowners insurance covers damage to your fence, which falls under the other structures portion of your home insurance policy. Other structures are generally covered at 10% of the dwelling coverage.

Sudden and accidental damage to your fence, such as a tree falling on it during a storm, will be covered by your policy, but there are some cases where the damage won’t be covered.

Whether home insurance covers the damaged fence depends on how it happened and what caused the damage.

Key Takeaways

Home insurance covers damage to your fence as long as the damage was done by a covered peril.
Wear and tear, rot and poor maintenance are not covered by home insurance.
The other structures coverage on your policy covers your fence, and has a limit of 10% of the dwelling coverage on your policy.

What part of a homeowners insurance policy covers fences?

Fences are covered under the other structures part of a home insurance policy. That’s listed as Coverage B on your declarations page.

Other structures is a standard part of a home insurance policy that covers all of the detached structures on your property at 10% of the dwelling coverage. You can increase this amount if necessary.

How much fence damage does home insurance cover?

Home insurance will cover your fence for its replacement cost up to the limits of the policy. as noted above that’s generally 10% of your dwelling coverage. So, if you have $500,000 in dwelling coverage, you will have $50,000 in other structures coverage.

When does homeowners insurance cover fences?

Fence repair should be covered as long as your homeowners policy covers that peril or cause of the loss. Below are some of the common causes of fence damage that your home insurance policy covers:

Vandalism
Fire
Theft
Falling trees
Weather-related damage
Car collision (although the at-fault driver’s liability insurance is primary).

Depending on the damage, you’ll also receive coverage for debris removal.

When doesn’t homeowners insurance fence damage?

If a flood or earthquake damages your fence, it won’t be covered by your homeowners insurance policy. In that situation, you would need to purchase a separate flood insurance or earthquake insurance policy to be compensated for the damage.

Fences are also not covered for wear and tear, poor maintenance and intentional damage.

How do you file a fence damage claim?

Here are the steps to file a fence damage claim if the damage is caused by a storm, a tree that fell or other covered perils.

Document the damage: Take photos and note down the time of the incident. Your insurer will probably take their own pictures, but it is good to take photos or a video right after the damage.

Get an estimate for the repair cost: You might need to get an estimate of the damage before you file a claim. If the estimate is lower than your deductible, there’s no point in filing the claim.

Call your insurance company: After getting the estimate, call your insurance company to file a homeowners insurance claim.

Coordinate with the insurance adjuster: Your insurance company will send an insurance adjuster to inspect the damage and see what needs to be repaired. After the inspection, the insurer will tell you how much money they will give you to cover the damage.

Save your receipts: If the damage is so severe that it needs emergency repair, save all receipts to submit to your insurance company.

If you think the insurance company is not offering enough to fix the damage, you can try to negotiate with them. Once you agree on a settlement, you can use that money to repair the fence.

Frequently asked questions

Is a blown over fence covered by homeowners insurance?

Your homeowners insurance policy will cover a blown-over fence as long as wind damage isn’t excluded from your insurance policy. However, the fence should have been in a good state before the incident.

What happens if a neighbor’s tree fell on your fence?

You can file a claim with your insurance company if a neighbor’s tree falls on your fence. Your insurer will try to collect from the neighbor’s insurance company if the neighbor’s negligence contributed to the tree coming down.

Shivani Gite

Contributing Writer

Shivani Gite is a personal finance and insurance writer with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She is passionate about making insurance topics easy to understand for people and helping them make better financial decisions.