Lightning and Surge Claims

The scope of damage varies between specific incidents, but lightning damage likely won’t require a claim settlement for a full replacement

Learn key claim trends, such as reported vs. actual cause of loss percentages, and be quizzed on your knowledge of these perils.

The insurance adjuster handling this claim needed Donan’s help to determine the cause of loss to a damaged wooden fence and retaining wall after lightning struck a nearby tree on the property.

Test your knowledge about this force of nature with our interactive quiz, Do You Know Your Lightning Facts?

With so much at stake, it’s important to verify the cause of loss to equipment before settling a claim, but it may be difficult to determine whether lightning, high voltage surge, or something else is responsible.

When these claims come across your desk, an objective assessment is crucial to determining the actual cause of loss – and whether the equipment is damaged at all.

Lightning and surge are the most frequently reported or determined cause of loss for commercial and residential policyholders.

Claims with electronics and electrically powered specialty items may include outdoor equipment like solar power systems, landscape lighting, lawnmowers, and more.

Policyholders report lightning as a cause of loss more often than other perils. Before deciding on claims with reported lightning damages, adjusters should know the truth behind seven myths related to lightning claims.

While structural fires as a direct result of lightning are rare, they do occur, and it’s important to get all the facts from the scene before you make a claim decision.