Anonymous wrote:I follow the fundamental principle that anyone who advertises via direct mail is ripping you off. I was furious that Wash Gas sent a letter on official stationery that just a spam ad for a 3rd party company.

Same. All utilities, banks, and insurance products do it now, and my trust level for these companies is subzero.

The main thing to keep in mind with insurance is that it would not be a viable business model if it had a net positive expected value to to consumer. Insurance companies make their money only by paying out less than they take from you, on average.

Knowing you will always lose money on average, the only time insurance makes sense is if you are insuring something that you:

1) Can't possibly do without

and

2) Can't possibly afford without the insurance payout

Health insurance? No brainer, virtually nobody can afford open heart surgery and if you need it you literally can't live without it. Yes, on average you will pay more in your lifetime in premiums than you get back but you're trading amounts you can afford monthly for the potential of them paying for a necessary expense that you couldn't possibly afford all at once.

Sewer line insurance? It's usually "only" like $10-15K max to replace. Not a fun bill to pay but a bill many people can manage, and if you can manage you're (on average) going to be better off self-insuring.

Thank you for asking this question! This forum has so many Richie Riches "concerns", I appreciate something that I can relate to.

If you have a leak between your house and the road, your homeowners nsurance won't cover it, and chances are neither will this cheapo insurance. They will find a loophole, an out, or decide that they will cover $150 of your $5k repair bill.

IGNORE these letters

I have the Dominion coverage. We have a polybutelene main line that is about 50 feet from the street. Neighbors have had this line burst at various times over the years and have reported replacement being covered by the Dominion coverage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth it? Costs about $70 for each.

Inside the house? No. Home Insurance should cover it. But do look into water mainline (the portion of the line from the mains to your house) and sewage insurance. Don't recall the cost but I'd guess about $20/m each and worth it for older homes.

Yes people who think their homeowners policy covers all issues are woefully misinformed or haven’t taken the time to understand their coverage.

But even the policies that cover from the house to the mainline have limits. They typically only cover leaks within a certain number of feet from your house. If the distance to the mainline is further than the coverage and the leak occurs past that distance, you’re on your own. Know what you buy.

Also there are a lot of costs involved besides the repair itself. There is the diagnostics, the excavation and the remediation. That can involve repairing sidewalks, driveways and landscaping and likely is excluded from coverage in most policies. The actual repair isn’t that costly. It’s all the other stuff that drives up the bill.

Five or so years ago we experienced a leak and learned so much about the process, cost and insurance. We did have coverage but the coverage didn’t extend to the water main. It also didn’t cover the dig to the pipe or the remediation. We were lucky that the leak wasn’t under the driveway because the repair estimate for that was high.

Lots of reddit discussion about this spam. You know itsa ripoff because it's advertised so incredibly heavily.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/comments/1od6hhz/dominion_and_sewer_marketing/

Dominion is tapping a cash machine.
But get sewer backup insurance in your homeowners. Check to becsure.

Anonymous wrote:I’m in VA but pay $4.99/month for water line insurance (no gas). My house is set far back from the road so if it breaks I’d have a hefty price to pay.

Through Dominion? I think it's gone up a bit over time..

I’m in VA but pay $4.99/month for water line insurance (no gas). My house is set far back from the road so if it breaks I’d have a hefty price to pay.

I follow the fundamental principle that anyone who advertises via direct mail is ripping you off. I was furious that Wash Gas sent a letter on official stationery that just a spam ad for a 3rd party company.

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth it? Costs about $70 for each.

Inside the house? No. Home Insurance should cover it. But do look into water mainline (the portion of the line from the mains to your house) and sewage insurance. Don't recall the cost but I'd guess about $20/m each and worth it for older homes.

Probably not worth the cost esp if its covered by your homeowner's insurance. My gas piping was recently redone/simplified by WashGas in the basement. So I'm not looking at any addl insurance coverage. Fixed gas piping typically doesn't fail.

Through whom? I wouldn't get the coverage Washington Gas keeps trying to sell me, but it is included in my homeowner's insurance.

Is it worth it? Costs about $70 for each.