You pay your homeowners insurance Scranton PA premium every year, assuming you’re fully covered. But when something actually goes wrong, like a burst pipe in January or a tree crashing through your roof during a summer storm, too many homeowners in the Scranton area discover gaps in their policy they never knew existed.
The truth is, a standard homeowners policy covers a lot. But it doesn’t cover everything. And the things it leaves out tend to be the exact things that cause the most financial damage.
Here are five coverage areas that Scranton and NEPA homeowners commonly overlook-and what you can do about each one.
1. Flood Damage Is Not Included in Standard Homeowners Insurance
This is the most common misconception in home insurance. A standard homeowners policy covers water damage from burst pipes or an overflowing washing machine, but it does not cover flooding from external sources-rising rivers, heavy rain runoff, snowmelt, or storm surges.
In the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area, this matters. The Lackawanna River corridor, areas near the Susquehanna, and many low-lying neighborhoods in NEPA are susceptible to seasonal flooding. If you’re in or near a FEMA flood zone, separate flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) or a private carrier is the only way to protect your home from flood loss.
Even if you’re not in a high-risk zone, flood insurance is worth considering. According to FEMA, over 25% of flood claims come from properties outside designated high-risk areas.
2. Sewer and Water Backup Coverage
When heavy rain overwhelms municipal sewer systems-something that happens regularly in older NEPA infrastructure-water can back up through your basement drains. This can cause thousands of dollars in damage to flooring, drywall, appliances, and personal belongings stored below grade.
Standard homeowners policies typically exclude sewer backup. The fix is a simple endorsement (add-on) to your existing policy, usually costing between $40 and $75 per year. For the amount of damage a single backup event can cause, it’s one of the most cost-effective additions you can make.
3. Adequate Personal Property Coverage
Most homeowners have a general idea of what their home is insured for, but far fewer have thought carefully about the value of everything inside it. Furniture, clothing, electronics, kitchen appliances, sporting goods, tools-it adds up faster than most people expect.
Standard policies cover personal property up to a percentage of your dwelling coverage (usually 50-70%), but that limit may not be enough if you have high-value items like jewelry, art, musical instruments, or a home office setup. These often need a separate scheduled endorsement with specific coverage limits.
A simple home inventory-even a quick walkthrough video on your phone, room by room-can help you and your agent determine whether your current limits are adequate.
4. Replacement Cost vs. Actual Cash Value
This is a policy detail that makes a massive difference at claim time, and most homeowners don’t think about it until it’s too late.
Actual Cash Value (ACV) pays you what your damaged property was worth at the time of the loss-factoring in depreciation. So a five-year-old roof that costs $15,000 to replace might only get you $8,000.
Replacement Cost Value (RCV) pays the full cost to repair or replace the damaged item with something of similar kind and quality, without deducting for depreciation.
The premium difference between ACV and RCV is usually modest, but the payout difference at claim time can be tens of thousands of dollars. If your policy is set to ACV, it’s worth having a conversation with your agent about switching.
5. Liability Limits That Match Your Actual Risk
Your homeowners policy includes liability coverage, which protects you if someone is injured on your property or if you accidentally cause damage to someone else’s property. Most standard policies start at $100,000 in liability coverage.
For many homeowners, that’s not enough. If a guest slips on your icy sidewalk in Scranton and racks up $150,000 in medical bills, you’re personally responsible for the $50,000 gap. If you have a pool, a trampoline, a dog, or regularly host guests, your liability exposure is higher than average.
Increasing your liability limit to $300,000 or $500,000 is usually inexpensive. And for homeowners with significant assets, an umbrella policy adds another layer of protection on top of that.
Don’t Wait for a Claim to Find Out What’s Missing
Most of these gaps are easy to fix-and relatively affordable. The problem isn’t cost. It’s awareness. Too many homeowners find out what their policy doesn’t cover only after they’ve filed a claim.
At Gilmartin Insurance Agency, we work with homeowners across Scranton, Clarks Summit, Wilkes-Barre, and the surrounding NEPA communities to review coverage and close gaps before they become costly surprises. As an independent agency, we shop multiple carriers to get you the right protection at a fair price.
Have questions or want to review your current policy? Contact us for a free, no-pressure conversation. We’ll help you understand exactly what you have, what you might be missing, and where you could save.
☎ Call us or request a free quote online today.
