What does the requirement of mitigation mean in an insurance policy?

Question

Does it mean taking action to prevent the same kind of loss from occurring again? Or does it just mean cleaning up and fixing up?

Answer 1

Mitigation means doing what you can to control or limit the amount of damage you suffer from a covered loss. For instance, if you have a fire start in your kitchen, they want you to try to put it out if you can do so safely so that the insurance would have to replace the kitchen area but not a whole 3 story house. Another example: if you get a broken pipe and water is gushing into your house, turn off the water and rent a wet vac to try to limit how much damage will be caused. The insurance company will reimburse for your expense, but they don't want you to close up the house and leave the water running while you go on vacation and then come back 2 wks later and demand a new house. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Preventing further damage from the original loss. For example, if a window breaks, put a piece of plywood over the hole in the wall to keep the rain from damaging the furniture.

Answer 3

It means, taking action to prevent the damages from increasing. Example: You have a tree fall on your roof. You have to take reasonable steps to minimize damages - which usually means, throwing a tarp over the hole to keep the rain out.