Will insurance pay for surge damage after a power outage?
Often not — and that is the honest answer. Since 2023 several South African insurers exclude damage caused by the interruption, failure or restoration of the electricity supply, carving out only scheduled, phased load shedding. An unplanned outage is neither scheduled nor phased. So the outages most likely to kill your appliances are the ones your policy is least likely to answer for. I cannot tell you a claim will be paid. Nobody honest can. What I can tell you is what the wording says, and what hardware does about it. Fitting that hardware at your board is my own work.
The wording that changed everything
OUTsurance's exclusion, effective 1 May 2023, reads: the policy does not cover loss, damage or liability directly or indirectly caused by a total or partial interruption, interference, failure or suspension of the supply of electricity or restoration thereof. Then comes the carve-out: the exclusion does not apply to power surge events resulting from load shedding, where load shedding means scheduled interruptions implemented in phases, by somebody other than the insured, which do not affect a whole municipality, province or country at the same time.
Read those two sentences against an ordinary unplanned outage. It is not scheduled. It is not phased. It can take a whole area off at once. It sits inside the exclusion and outside the carve-out.
Insurers that added grid-failure exclusions include OUTsurance from 1 May 2023 and Santam from 1 April 2023, along with Hollard, Momentum Insure and Naked. King Price puts it plainly: most policies exclude damage from grid interruptions, meaning unplanned outages from faults or equipment failure, while load-shedding surge damage is covered only if it has been added to the policy. As King Price says, unlike load shedding, grid interruptions come without warning, which makes them harder to prepare for. Its own remedy is to have surge protection fitted at the DB board by a qualified electrician.
Ordinary surges are still covered — with an excess
Santam has said that where appliances suffer a power surge outside of a national grid failure, it will still offer cover. But from 2023 it applied a fixed excess to personal-lines power surge and related electrical damage claims, and on commercial policies 10 percent of claim value against a minimum that cannot be waived or bought down. It also removed the wording that previously waived the excess for clients who had surge protectors fitted.
Why? The claims. Santam reported power surge claims up around 50 percent in twelve months and more than 200 percent over three years. Across South African insurers, surge claims rose about 80 percent over three years. Dialdirect saw a 70 percent jump in the first quarter of 2023 alone.
The number that should bother you
Only about 21 percent of Santam-insured households, and 20 percent of businesses, have surge protection equipment or practices in place. Four in five homes are unprotected, while their insurer charges an excess that cannot be waived and excludes the local outages that do the damage.
Meanwhile the country's largest insurer tells homeowners to install surge protection devices at the distribution board or at outlets, to unplug devices during outages, and to keep backup batteries healthy. When your insurer's own advice and your electrician's advice are the same sentence, it is worth listening to. The device at the board is a small piece of hardware, and I fit it myself.
Storm season is a Vaal problem, not a general one
The summer rainfall region runs October to March and is dominated by convective storms. Southern Gauteng — the band that holds the Vaal Triangle — together with the northern Free State sits in the 10 to 15 lightning flashes per square kilometre per year category, against 5 to 10 for most of the central interior. A single flash also produces more than one ground strike point, so the plain flash-density number understates the real hazard.
That is why I push board checks in September, October and November rather than in January when the phone is already ringing.
Consumer-grade devices protect against induced surges, not a direct strike. The sensible approach is layered: a device at the board, plus plug-level protection on the television and the computer.
What a decent device looks like
Santam's stated criteria for a good surge protection device are useful because they are somebody else's, not mine: a five-year warranty, an installation certificate, and protection against over-voltage, under-voltage, multiple strikes and lightning surge. Under-voltage matters more than people think — when the grid sags below roughly 185 volts, motors in fridges and pumps overheat quietly.
One more thing insurers ask for: Santam requires a valid electrical Certificate of Compliance from a registered electrician confirming it meets the national wiring standard. Insurers commonly ask for the certificate and its test report when they assess electrical or fire damage. That is paperwork you either have or you do not, on the day you need it.
1. Open your policy schedule and find the electricity supply exclusion. Ask your broker in writing what is and is not covered.
2. Photograph your open DB board and WhatsApp it to me. I quote the board-level device off the photo, free.
3. Fit plug-level protection on the television, decoder and computer as a second layer.
4. During an outage, switch off and unplug electronics. The damage happens when the power comes back.
5. Book the board check before the first storms, not after.
Before you phone.
Does home insurance cover surge damage after an unplanned outage?
Does having a surge protector remove my excess?
What decides the price of surge protection at the DB board?
Tell me what's happening.
It costs nothing to ask, and you get a straight answer back.