Water, water everywhere. An often-costly situation if you’re a homeowner

By JESSE HENRYS/ For The Herald — It can be a homeowner’s worst nightmare – walking outside of your house to see water streaming across your lawn and you don’t know how to turn it off. Your water pipe has burst and is leaking gallon after gallon of water across the yard and into the street. Some see it as just water, but you see a flood of money coursing down the street.

The city water department confirms the problem and gives more bad news: The pipe connecting your house to the city water system is broken and buried underground. Since the pipe damage happened on your property and beyond the City’s point of connection, it’s your responsibility to fix it. It will cost a boatload of money and that’s not what is leaking from the ruptured pipe.

Handling the problem yourself can be a nightmare and most people don’t know where to start. You can’t fix what you can’t see. You soon learn that your homeowner insurance will most likely not cover the damage. When a line break happens beneath the surface, and it’s not affecting your home, it’s considered normal wear and tear.

It takes special equipment to locate where the lines are buried and find the break. This can be even more troublesome if building plans have changed. If the plans are not in the city records, it’s going to take a lot of digging to find the break if you try to do it yourself. Very frustrating. The same situation can occur with your sewer line. A crumbling or broken sewer line can set up the same scenario I just described for a broken water line.

However, thanks to the foresight of Oakridge city leaders, there is a program that can take the pinch out of the stench. About 2 years ago, the city partnered with Service Line Warranties of America (SLWA), a multinational insurance company. When Oakridge City Administrator, Bryan Cutchen, brough the program to the City Council, they voted unanimously to approve the partnership. Mr. Cutchen said it’s the only one like it endorsed by the National League of Cities. SLWA is a program designed to help communities to deal with aging infrastructure. By partnering with the City, the program is able to offer low-cost coverage to protect people from these potentially devastating problems.

Lindzie Crockit, a SLW spokesperson said the company was founded in 1993, first in Canada and the United Kingdom. Since coming to the US in 2003, it has added another 4 million customers across the country. “It provides an affordable, voluntary solution that can help protect residents from high-cost water and sewer line repair,” she said. “The policy has 3 levels of services available.”

The cost to insure an exterior water service line, is around $5.75 a month. Coverage for a sewer-septic line is around $7.75 per month. The top tier coverage includes protection against both possible events for $12.14 monthly. If either of these require repairs, SLW will provide up to $8500 per each service call as needed to fix the problem. The $8500 limit is for each visit, Crockit said. “If you need us to make 3 repairs, you will be covered by the $8500 limit to make all 3 repairs,” she said.

By partnering with the city, which provides water and sewer services to Oakridge residents, the insurer gives the city a $.50 stipend for each policyholder covered throughout the 3-year contract. “There are other, less tangible benefits for the city.” said Cutchen. “The work is done using local plumbers and other contractors to repair the damage.” “There is no cost to the city, and it could stimulate new investment in the city,” Cutchen said. “In this time of tight budgets, it helps our economy.”

Service Line Warranties of America can be found at https://www.slwofa.com