Unless you specifically asked your home insurance broker to include coverage for rodent damage in your policy, you will probably be stuck with paying for it out-of-pocket. Most homeowners insurance pays for accidental or sudden damage but not damage occurring over time. In other words, if a tornado blows the roof off, your insurance will likely pay for a new roof. If a slow water leak causes mold to develop over a period of six months, you may have difficulty getting your home insurance to pay for removing the mold.
What Kind of Damage Can Rats Do To Attics?
Rats will do ALL the following:
- Chew through the thickest wires to create fire hazards and electrical outages
- Urinate on attic insulation
- Destroy attic insulation for nesting material
- Chew holes in wood beams, eaves, and soffits
- Leave behind a staggering amount of rat droppings. In addition to containing powerful enzymes that degrade drywall and promote mold growth, droppings emit strong odors that attract other animals.
Depending on the size of your rat infestation, the cost of decontaminating and sanitizing your attic may exceed the cost of effecting repairs.
What You Can Do To Avoid Paying for Attic Rat Damage
If you don’t want to pay higher home insurance premiums to cover rat damage, make sure you get a building professionally inspected before you purchase it. Once you’ve moved into a new home or commercial property, call Critter Control of Tampa to schedule bi-annual inspections for rat and insect infestations.
Just because you don’t see signs of rats in your attic doesn’t mean rats haven’t been checking the place out. Signs of a rodent infestation don’t become unmistakably obvious until dozens of rats have already built nests and begun reproducing. You aren’t likely to see rats running around in your home, either, since rats and other rodents are primarily nocturnal.
Call Critter Control® of Tampa today to have your home or building thoroughly inspected by expert pest technicians. We also disinfect pest-infested areas, apply prevention techniques to keep out rodents and can replace damaged attic insulation if necessary.
