WASHINGTON — As thousands of people throughout western Washington remain without power, many people have had to throw out their food due to it spoiling in their fridge. This begs the question: If your food goes bad because your fridge has no power, can it be covered by insurance?
Weirdly, it’s a yes and no answer.
Kenton Brine, president of the NW Insurance Council, said it all depends on your homeowner or renter insurance policy that has a food loss limit.
“There has to be a power outage of significant period of time like 72 hours or more is an example,” Brine said.
Brine also points out it also depends on your deductible.
“If you got a $2,500 deductible and you’ve only suffered a thousand dollars worth of food loss, you are still paying out of pocket and it’s not worth filing a claim,” Brine said. “However, a lot of people have food stored in their garage and freezer. They might have a whole slab of beef out there, that can add up pretty quickly and then you are looking at the possibility (of filing) a claim,” Brine said.
Brine said if you are in a situation where you have a significant amount of food loss due to a power outage, it’s vital to keep your receipts to make the process easier.
“A lot of people are not aware that they should keep an inventory of things in their home in case of a loss,” Brine said.
As people throughout Puget Sound continue to pick up the pieces, Brine said it’s a good time to look over what exactly your insurance covers.
“Have that regular or at least once a year conversation with your insurance agent to make sure you got the coverage you need and it’s covering the things you think it covers,” Brine said.
The NW Insurance Council also released this information here as a guide for people navigating through all the recovery efforts underway.
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