When one of my upstairs toilets started leaking in my house in the US, it finally got so bad that I noticed a stain on the garage ceiling. The insurance inspector said that insurance would not cover a &quot;slow leak&quot;. I was very nice and polite and pointed out how soaked the subfloor was and that there was no way to know when the leak started (which was true). She wrote her recommendation that it be covered, which the company apparently accepted since they wrote me a check.<p>Definitely not $50k (more like $2.5k), but it&#x27;s still disturbing that the line between insurance covering it and not covering it was so thin.<p>I wonder if a more thorough inspection would have caught it. Surely houses built around that time are routinely inspected for asbestos, lead-based paint, etc before purchase anyway. (Actually, going back and reading the comments, he actually addresses this point: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jefftk.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;mercury-spill#fb-752340840802_752343036402" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jefftk.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;mercury-spill#fb-752340840802_752343...</a>. Perhaps he could have made it a condition of purchase, that the seller pay for a mercury vapor inspection? Perhaps it&#x27;s not such a common problem that such a requirement would be reasonable. Hindsight, etc.)