Sewer backup in Michigan: coverage, the endorsement and the 45-day notice

Two separate questions: who pays, and who is responsible

When sewage comes up through a floor drain, people ask two things at once. Does my insurance pay, and does the city owe me? The answers come from different places and run on different clocks, and mixing them up is how people miss a deadline. This guide separates them.

The first answer comes from your policy and from the state’s insurance regulator, DIFS. The second comes from a state statute on government sewage disposal systems, MCL 691.1416 to 691.1419. You can have either, both or neither, and you should preserve both options until you know.

What DIFS says about coverage

DIFS says flood damage is typically not covered unless you have purchased flood insurance, and that water and sewer back-up is also not automatically covered under a homeowners or renters policy. It recommends discussing options with your agent before a loss.

The coverage that fills the gap is an endorsement, described in DIFS’s publication on water and sewer backup. It provides coverage for backup of water through a sewer or drain and for water that overflows from a sump, including backup caused by mechanical breakdown of a sump pump. It pays only up to the selected maximum, which insurers sell as a specified limit or a percentage of dwelling coverage. DIFS suggests considering it if you have a finished basement or personal property in the basement, and says its cost is relatively low compared with the protection. DIFS gives no premium figure, and neither do we.

The same publication says the coverage typically does not cover loss due to a flood, repair or replacement of a broken sump pump, or lack of maintenance or wear and tear of the sump pump. So the endorsement pays for the water damage, not for the pump.

How to describe the loss when you call

DIFS’s advice is to tell the insurer you have water damage and want to know what coverage is available, rather than stating that the damage is flood. It names storm-related rainwater intrusion, sewer back-up and a failing sump pump as causes that may be covered under the policy. The point is practical: a claim phrased as flood can be read as excluded before anyone looks at the cause.

Photograph the damage before cleaning, keep damaged items until the insurer says otherwise, and keep every receipt. If the water is sewage, photograph from where you can stand safely. Our sewage cleanup page covers the safety steps.

The government claim: what the statute says

Michigan’s law on sewage disposal system events lets a person claim against the responsible government agency under defined conditions. A sewage disposal system event is an overflow or backup of a sewage disposal system onto real property. It is not such an event if a substantial proximate cause, which the statute puts at 50 percent or more, was an obstruction in a service lead that the agency did not cause, or a connection on the property such as a sump system, building drain, surface drain, gutter or downspout.

To recover, the claimant must show that the agency was the appropriate one, that the system had a defect, that the agency knew or should have known of it, that it failed to take reasonable steps in a reasonable time, and that the defect was a substantial proximate cause. For personal property you need reasonable proof of ownership and value, such as records and photographs. Damages are economic only, except for death, serious impairment of body function or permanent serious disfigurement. These sections are the sole remedy.

The 45-day notice

MCL 691.1419 requires the claimant to notify the agency in writing within 45 days after the damage was discovered, or should have been discovered. The notice must include your name, address and phone, the address of the affected property, the date of discovery and a brief description. If you contact the agency first, orally or in writing, it must give you the notice rules and the name and address to send notice to. Failure to comply may be excused only if the agency failed in that duty.

Cities repeat the rule on their own pages. East Lansing says claims must be filed within 45 days of discovery and that it is not responsible for private sewer lines. Lincoln Park summarizes Public Act 222 of 2001 and says failure to give proper notice may bar the claim. Wyoming tells residents to call public works before a plumber and offers a claims process for personal items damaged by a city-repaired sewer backup. Livonia says backups are usually caused by internal plumbing problems and, in rare cases, the public sewer line, and sends a crew to decide if the backup is in the city main or the private lateral. The point of all of them is the same: call the city early, write down what it says and put your notice in writing.

Putting the two tracks together

Do both, in this order. Call your insurer first and describe the loss as water damage. Write the date you discovered the damage on a card by the phone. Call the city’s public works number, which your city page lists where we found one, and ask what its notice process is. Then send written notice with the five items above, well inside the 45 days, and keep a copy and proof of delivery.

Which one caused the backup, your own pipe or the city’s main, is a question for the plumber and the city, and neither the insurer nor we can settle it. If the insurer is slow, DIFS says to try to resolve the issue with the company first and then call DIFS at 877-999-6442 or file at Michigan.gov/DIFScomplaints.

What the sources leave out

Beyond the statements by MDHHS, the Red Cross and MiReady that floodwater can contain raw sewage and that cleanup calls for gloves, boots and a respirator, Michigan sources offer no sewage health precautions, so we give no further list. No statewide figure exists in them for how often backups are caused by the public main versus private lines. Ask the city and the plumber, and photograph the cleanout and the drain.