Window Claim Code Upgrades — Egress, Tempered Glass, Energy Code

An insurance scope prices like kind and quality: the same window you had, new. The building code does not care what you had. When a window is replaced, the inspector looks at what goes in, and three rules come up over and over on storm claims in older Twin Cities houses. A bedroom window has to open to a clear size you could climb through, and plenty of older double hungs and sliders do not. Glass near a bathtub or shower, close to the floor, or next to a door has to be tempered. And the new glass has to meet the energy code for Minnesota, which a single-pane or early double-pane unit never did. Each of those can change the window that gets ordered, and the price.

That gap has a name on many policies: ordinance or law coverage. It pays, up to its own limit, for the extra cost of meeting current code when covered damage is repaired. Some policies include it, some sell it as an endorsement, some do not have it. Whether yours does, and how much it covers, is on your declarations page and is a question for your agent. What we can do is make the code items visible. On our scope, each window has its like-kind line, then a separate line for any code item the replacement triggers, with a note on which rule and why. A code line that is buried in the window price gets argued; one that is written out gets considered.

Not every replacement triggers these. A glass-only or sash-only repair in the original frame usually does not change the opening or the glass area and the code questions mostly do not come up, though tempered glass near a tub is required whenever that pane is replaced. A full-frame replacement does. We tell you which windows on your house carry a code item before anything is ordered, so you can take the question to your agent with specifics. You file the claim and settle coverage with your insurer; we build to code and write it so the adjuster can follow it.