Guides
Lightning and power surge damage
Lightning is a covered peril. A power surge is different: the standard form excludes circuitry, so the cause of the damage decides the claim.
Lightning is a covered cause of loss on a standard homeowners policy, so a strike that burns your roof, starts an attic fire or destroys a television is a claim. A power surge is where claims go wrong. The ISO HO-3 pays for sudden damage from "artificially generated" electrical current but carves out electronic circuitry, so a surge that fries a computer or a furnace control board is often not covered unless lightning caused it or you bought an equipment breakdown or surge endorsement. In practice the fight is over cause: lightning, a utility fault, or something inside the house.
This guide follows the ISO HO-3 (form HO 00 03 05 11). Your insurer's own form, endorsements and state amendments may read differently, so check the electrical and power-failure language in your policy.
How lightning damage is covered
The HO-3 lists "Fire or Lightning" as the first peril for personal property, and it covers the dwelling and other structures on an open-perils basis against any direct physical loss that is not excluded, which includes lightning. The lightning peril as written in the form has no carve-out for electronics. That is why an adjuster who accepts that lightning struck will generally pay for the damage it caused, subject to your deductible. Typical lightning claims include:
- A fire started by a strike, handled like any other fire loss (fire and smoke damage: how homeowners insurance responds).
- A split roof deck, damaged chimney or burned wiring and outlets.
- Appliances, televisions, computers and routers damaged by a strike on the house or on the service line next to it.
- Trees, shrubs and plants on the property. Lightning is one of the causes the form covers for them, up to 5% of the dwelling limit and $500 per item.
- A struck tree that falls onto the house, which is then also a falling tree damage: who pays and when claim.
Contents and hardwired appliances are generally settled at actual cash value, not replacement cost, unless your policy has a replacement cost endorsement on personal property (see replacement cost vs actual cash value: why it matters). The form says household appliances are paid at actual cash value even when attached to the building.
How often it happens
Triple-I and State Farm data show 61,986 lightning-caused homeowners claims in 2025, up 11.6% from 2024, costing $1.65 billion with an average of $26,616 per claim, according to III. Claim counts have been falling over a longer period while the cost of each claim climbs:
| Year | Claims | Average cost per claim |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 85,020 | $10,781 |
| 2020 | 71,551 | $28,885 |
| 2024 | 55,537 | $18,641 |
| 2025 | 61,986 | $26,616 |
III's 2025 table puts Florida first by claim count (5,167), followed by California, Texas and Georgia. The average Texas claim was $60,382, more than twice the national figure. Averages swing widely from year to year. Treat them as a sense of scale, not a prediction for your house.
Power surge: what the form actually says
A surge is a short spike in voltage. It can come from lightning, from a utility problem such as a downed line or a transformer failure, or from inside the house, such as a faulty circuit or a big motor kicking on. The HO-3 handles each cause differently:
| Cause of surge | How the HO-3 treats it |
|---|---|
| Lightning, direct or induced | Covered under the fire or lightning peril; no electronics exclusion in the peril |
| Utility equipment fault, line down, grid switching | Falls under the named peril for sudden and accidental artificially generated electrical current, which does not cover tubes, transistors, electronic components or circuitry in appliances, fixtures, computers, home entertainment units or other electronic apparatus |
| Internal short or faulty wiring | Same artificially generated current peril, so the same electronics carve-out; a fire that results is covered as a fire |
| A power outage itself (food thawing, no heat) | Excluded as power failure when the failure happens off your premises |
Two things follow. First, the carve-out is for electronics, not for every kind of surge damage: the circuit boards inside a refrigerator, a television or a heat pump are what is excluded, while non-electronic parts such as a motor or heating element can fall within the peril. Second, the dwelling is covered on an open-perils basis, so damage to hardwired parts of the house, such as outlets, panels and wiring, is a Coverage A question where the usual exclusions for wear and tear and mechanical breakdown can apply. Ask your adjuster in writing which provision applies to each item on the estimate.
The result surprises people. A homeowner whose televisions died in the same storm can find that one claim is accepted because the adjuster is satisfied lightning struck, and another is denied as an unexplained surge. Proof of lightning is therefore the whole claim.
Proving it was lightning
A strike that leaves visible marks is much easier to prove. The harder cases are the ones where the only evidence is dead electronics. These help:
- Date and time. Write down when the storm passed and when you noticed the failures. Photograph the weather alerts on your phone.
- Physical evidence. Scorch marks on outlets, a burnt smell, melted plastic, a tripped main breaker, a split tree or a cracked chimney cap. Photograph before anyone replaces anything (documenting damage: photos, video and receipts).
- Pattern of damage. Several unrelated devices failing on the same circuit or on the cable and phone lines in one storm points to a strike or a surge on the service.
- Neighbors. Nearby homes with damage at the same time help show a storm event.
- Third-party reports. An electrician's written report can say what happened to your panel and wiring. Insurers sometimes obtain a lightning strike verification report from a weather data service. Ask yours whether it will order one.
- The damaged items. Keep them until the adjuster has inspected or released them in writing.
Lightning can also cause damage that shows up later: a smoldering fire in the attic, a failing circuit, or a compressor that quits three weeks after the storm. Report promptly and read claims for hidden damage discovered later if the failures appear in stages. Have an electrician inspect the panel and wiring after any near strike before you restore power to the whole house; old wiring, electrical fires and insurability explains why wiring problems matter to insurers.
Surge endorsements and equipment breakdown
If the standard form leaves surge damage to circuitry uncovered, the gap is filled by endorsement. Many insurers sell an equipment breakdown or "home systems" endorsement (one of the homeowners endorsements worth considering) that covers sudden failure of electrical and mechanical equipment, which can include damage from power surges. The equipment breakdown coverage: what it pays and who needs it guide covers what these endorsements typically pay, and Appliance and HVAC breakdown: insurance or warranty? covers failures with no surge involved. Terms vary by insurer, so look at the limit, deductible, exclusions and what counts as "equipment." If one of these endorsements is on your declarations page, a surge claim is often simpler, because the cause matters less than the failure.
Should you file?
Here is a hypothetical case. Say your deductible is $1,000, and a storm destroys a television (actual cash value $450), a router and mesh nodes ($200), a garage-door opener ($250) and the control board on a heat pump ($1,100), for $2,000 in all. If the adjuster accepts lightning as the cause, the policy pays $1,000 after the deductible. If the adjuster calls it a utility surge, the circuitry is excluded and little or nothing is owed.
Because a failed device can cost less than your deductible, compare the likely payment to the claim's effect on your record with the Should I file a homeowners claim? and should you file a homeowners claim? before you call. A strike that starts a fire or damages the structure is a different matter and should always be reported.
You can also ask your electric utility whether it will cover a surge from its equipment. Utilities' filed tariffs often limit their liability for voltage variations, so recovery usually depends on showing negligence. It costs little to ask, and do it in writing.
Protecting against the next one
Insurance pays after the fact. A whole-house surge protective device installed at the main panel by a licensed electrician, point-of-use protectors on valuable electronics and unplugging sensitive equipment during an approaching storm all reduce the chance of damage. A lightning protection system is a separate, larger installation. Check whether your insurer offers any credit before paying for one.
Key takeaways
- Lightning is a covered peril, including for electronics, and the insurer's question is usually whether lightning really caused the damage.
- The ISO HO-3 excludes electronic circuitry from the artificially generated current peril, so a surge from a utility fault or an internal short often goes unpaid unless you carry an equipment breakdown or surge endorsement.
- Photograph the damage, note the storm time, keep the failed devices and get an electrician's report to prove the cause.
- Contents and appliances are usually paid at actual cash value, and many surge losses are smaller than the deductible.
- Report fire, structural or wiring damage right away, since lightning damage can show up days or weeks later.