Suburban Raccoons

The damage to your home from raccoon’s can be significant both inside and outside your home. This picture shows the damage to a consumer’s roof from raccoons, probably because he blocked the entrance to the den inside the attic and they were trying to rescue their young pups. They will literally tear your roof apart to get to their babies and in the process cause a lot of damage. In addition, if you are unfortunate enough to have a lot of rain, damage from water penetrating the roof can make it much worse. Homeowners insurance raccoon damage is not always available and something that you probably did not think about when you signed up for insurance. In our case, there was a clause in our insurance documentation that specifically denied coverage for damage done by raccoons. Can you believe that!

Homeowners Insurance Raccoon Damage

The best defense against raccoons is to deal with the problem as soon as you suspect that they are in your attic. If you wait thinking that they will leave, you are just giving them time to settle in and to have their babies. Once they have the babies you really only have two choices. Either wait until they are old enough to travel on their own, or go into the attic yourself and remove them risking that the adults may defend them, which can be a nasty business.

Most experts agree that the best approach is to install a one-way trap door over the entrance to your attic, wait for the raccoons to leave, and then go into the attic and remove the pups. Leave them outside somewhere that the adults can see them and take them somewhere else. Once they are all out, remove the trap door and install heavy gauge wire mesh across any opening or penitential opening.

In terms of homeowners’ insurance raccoon damage, unless you have special coverage, you are probably out of luck and will need to pay for the damage and repairs yourself which if not dealt with immediately can be thousands of dollars.

For more posts about damage from raccoons, click here.

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