Three causes of loss are excluded from a standard homeowners policy in every state consumer guide reviewed here: flood, earthquake, and wear and tear. Beyond those three the lists diverge, and commonly include earth movement, termites and other pests, mold, seepage, neglect, war and nuclear hazard. Exclusions are not one category. Some are excluded outright, some are insurable under a separate contract, and some are excluded because they are maintenance rather than sudden events.

This article explains how exclusions are structured in a policy you already hold. It is educational information, not financial, insurance or legal advice. For a question about your own coverage, speak to a licensed agent or your state Department of Insurance.

This page is about the contract before anything has happened. It does not cover what to do after a loss, how a claim is handled, or how a settlement is reached. Those are different subjects with different answers.

The short answer, and the regulators who agree on it

Four state insurance regulators publish lists of what a standard homeowners policy does not cover. Three items appear in all four.

Flood. The Iowa Insurance Division states plainly that "Floods, wear and tear, and earthquakes are excluded perils." The North Carolina Department of Insurance lists flood among losses typically not covered. The New York Department of Financial Services states that flood coverage is generally always excluded from homeowners and tenants policies. The California Department of Insurance lists flood first among perils generally not covered.

Earthquake. The same four. California lists both earthquake and earth movement as separate entries.

Wear and tear. California lists "Wear and tear or maintenance." Texas lists wear and tear. Iowa names it in the sentence above.

Everything past those three varies, and the variation is itself useful information.

Four state lists, side by side

Here is what each regulator actually publishes. Empty cells mean the item was not named in that publication, not that it is covered.

The California Department of Insurance list is the fullest of the four. Its residential insurance guide, issued as Form 401 and revised January 2026, names as perils generally not covered: "Flood, Earthquake, Earth movement, Termites, Insects, rats or mice, Water damage cause by seepage or leaks, Mold, Wear and tear or maintenance, War, Insurrection, Tidal wave, Neglect, Nuclear hazard."

The Texas Department of Insurance, in a tip page updated September 29, 2025, states that coverage on an all-risk policy typically excludes termites, wear and tear, sewer backups, floods, earthquakes, mold removal and foundation repairs.

The North Carolina Department of Insurance lists losses from "floods, earthquakes, mudslides, mudflows or landslide" as typically not covered, and separately notes that windstorm and hail may be excluded from a policy and purchased separately.

The Iowa Insurance Division, in a consumer guide published April 4, 2024, gives the three-item version quoted above.

Four official publications, four different lists, one overlapping core. No one of them is your policy.

Kind one: excluded outright

Some exclusions have no ordinary route back into coverage for a household. War, insurrection and nuclear hazard are the clearest examples, and California names all three.

These are excluded because of the nature of the risk rather than because of anything about a particular property. There is nothing on the reader's side to do about them, no endorsement in the ordinary consumer market that reverses them, and no reading of the policy that finds coverage. They are worth knowing about mainly so that they are not confused with the next two kinds, which behave completely differently.

Intentional acts belong in a related category. The North Carolina Department of Insurance notes that personal liability coverage excludes intentional acts, which is a limit on the coverage rather than a peril in the usual sense.

Kind two: excluded here, insurable somewhere else

This is the group that matters most, because being excluded from the homeowners policy is not the same as being uninsurable.

Flood. The New York Department of Financial Services states that flood is generally always excluded from homeowners and tenants policies, and that the coverage is purchased separately through the federal program. This is not an exclusion a household can argue about. It is a boundary between two different contracts, and it is covered separately in why flood is a separate policy.

Earthquake. Excluded in all four states' material, and available separately. The California Department of Insurance goes further than the others and states that an insurer is legally obligated to offer earthquake coverage for an additional premium, which is a state-specific rule rather than a national one.

Windstorm and hail. The North Carolina Department of Insurance notes these may be excluded from a policy and purchased separately. That structure is not universal, it is a feature of certain markets, and it is the reason a national list of exclusions can be misleading in a coastal state.

The reading instruction for this group is different from kind one. When one of these appears in your exclusions, the next question is not whether the policy covers it, because it does not. The next question is what separate contract exists for it in your state, and that is a question for a licensed agent or your state Department of Insurance.

Kind three: excluded because it is maintenance, not an event

The third group is where most disagreements actually start, and it is the least understood.

California's list names wear and tear or maintenance, neglect, termites, insects, rats or mice, mold, and water damage caused by seepage or leaks. Texas names wear and tear, termites, mold removal, sewer backups and foundation repairs.

What connects these is not the type of damage, it is the shape of the cause. A homeowners policy is built to respond to a sudden, identifiable event. Deterioration over time is not that. A leak that develops slowly, an infestation that establishes itself, a foundation that settles across years, a material that ages out are all outcomes rather than events, and the policy does not treat them as insurable losses.

Two consequences follow, and neither is advice.

The first is that the boundary between kind three and a covered loss can be genuinely fine, because a sudden failure and a slow one can produce identical looking damage. Where that line falls is set by the policy language, not by how the damage looks.

The second is that sewer backup appears on the Texas list as a typical exclusion, and it is one that many policies address through an endorsement. Whether yours does is a question about your own form and endorsement list.

"Excluded" is not the same as "not covered"

There are two different ways a cause of loss can end up outside a policy, and only one of them is an exclusion.

On an open peril policy, coverage is stated broadly and then narrowed by an exclusions list. A cause is outside the policy because it is named in that list. This is where the word exclusion belongs.

On a named peril policy, coverage exists only for causes the policy lists. A cause can be outside the policy simply because it is not on the list, without being excluded anywhere. Nothing has been carved out. It was never in.

The practical difference is where to look. On an open peril policy the exclusions section is the boundary of the coverage. On a named peril policy the covered perils list is the boundary and the exclusions section is secondary. Which structure your policy uses is covered in named perils vs open perils.

A reader who does not separate these two can spend a long time searching an exclusions list for something that was never going to be there.

Why no published list is your list

Every list on this page, including the ones from state regulators, is a summary of what policies in a particular market commonly do. None of them is a policy.

Three reasons the general list and the specific one diverge:

Insurers file their own forms. Policy wording is filed and approved state by state, so two policies sold under the same form number in two states can read differently.

Endorsements modify the base form. An endorsement can add coverage back, remove more, or attach conditions. Endorsements are listed on your declarations page by form number, and the exclusions in your policy are the base form's exclusions as modified by every one of those.

Markets differ. North Carolina's material discusses windstorm and hail as separately excludable. California's discusses earthquake as something an insurer must offer. Neither statement travels.

That is why the useful output of an article like this is not the list. It is knowing what kind of thing each exclusion is, and knowing where in your own paperwork the governing version is written. The rest of the structure of that paperwork is covered in the six coverage parts A through F and in how to read an insurance declarations page.

How to read your own exclusions section

1. Get the policy form, not the declarations page. Exclusions live in the form. If it is not in hand, ask your insurer for it by the form number printed on your declarations page.
2. Find the section headed Exclusions. On many forms there is more than one, because Section I property and Section II liability carry their own.
3. Sort what you find into the three kinds above. Outright, insurable elsewhere, and maintenance. Each kind has a different next step, and only the second one has anything to buy.
4. Read the endorsement list on the declarations page and get any endorsement that mentions an exclusion, since that is where the base form gets modified.
5. Check whether a separate deductible attaches to any excludable peril in your market. Where a peril is covered under a separate arrangement it often carries its own deductible, and how those are written is covered in flat vs percentage deductibles.

For anything past reading the document, a licensed insurance agent can explain what a specific exclusion or endorsement does. Your insurer's service line can send you the forms. Your state Department of Insurance publishes the consumer material this article draws on and handles complaints about how a company administers a policy, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners maintains the directory of state departments.

This site explains documents. It does not tell anyone which endorsements to carry, and it does not evaluate whether a particular exclusion is fair, because both of those depend on facts about a household and a property that no article can see.

Frequently asked questions

Is flood ever covered by a homeowners policy?
The state material reviewed here treats it as excluded. The New York Department of Financial Services states that flood coverage is generally always excluded from homeowners and tenants policies and that the coverage is bought separately through the federal program. Iowa, North Carolina and California all list flood among perils not covered.

Why is water damage sometimes covered and sometimes not?
Because the exclusions are written around the shape of the cause rather than the type of damage. California's list names "Water damage cause by seepage or leaks" as generally not covered, and Texas names sewer backups. A sudden failure and a slow one can look the same afterward, and the policy language, not the appearance, is what governs.

If a cause is not on my exclusions list, is it covered?
Only if your coverage is written on an open peril basis. On a named peril policy, a cause has to appear on the covered perils list to be covered, and absence from the exclusions list means nothing. Check which structure your policy uses first.

Do all states have the same exclusions?
No. The four regulator publications compared above overlap on flood, earthquake and wear and tear and diverge after that. North Carolina discusses windstorm and hail as separately excludable, and California states that insurers there are legally obligated to offer earthquake coverage. Policy forms are filed state by state, so your own form is the only reliable source.

Sources: California Department of Insurance, "Residential Insurance: Homeowners and Renters," Form 401, revised January 2026. Texas Department of Insurance, "All-risk or named peril home insurance policies," updated September 29, 2025. North Carolina Department of Insurance, "Basic Homeowners Insurance" (no date shown on the page). Iowa Insurance Division, "Consumer Connection: Understanding your Homeowners Policy," published April 4, 2024. New York Department of Financial Services, "Homeowners Insurance: Choosing a Policy" and "Homeowners Insurance: Flood Insurance" (no dates shown on the pages). All accessed August 6, 2026.