Our customer has a rental dwelling insured on form DP-1. During a bad cold spell this past winter, the pipes froze and broke, doing extensive damage. The DP-1 does not cover frozen pipes, but it does cover explosion. We believe that the bursting of the pipes would qualify as an explosion.

What do you think?

Pennsylvania Subscriber

In this loss, your customer's pipes froze and burst open, causing water damage. The DP-1 says that "explosion" does not include "breakage of water pipes."

In this case, the pipes broke. The policy doesn't specify which causes of breakage are excluded. It just says that breakage of water pipes is not an explosion. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines "explosion" as "a large-scale, rapid, and spectacular expansion, outbreak, or upheaval." That is not what happened here.

It appears that the insurer is correct to deny this claim.