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House Keeps Getting Hit by Cars: What’s a Homeowner to Do?

Homes can endure all kinds of damage (flood, fire, hail), but one that doesn’t come up quite so often is getting hit by a car. The odds of that happening must be one in a million, right? If so, then one house in Raleigh, NC, has had more than its share of bad luck—millions more, in fact.

A total of six cars have crashed into it since 2004, when Carlo Bernarte and his family moved in.

The hapless homeowner told ABC News he’d known the house had been hit by a car at least once before they moved in. He figured it was just a fluke … until another vehicle crashed into the home in 2007, followed by others in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, and most recently on Aug. 13.

Why do cars crash into homes, anyway?

Experts attribute this rash of accidents to an especially curvy road in front of Bernarte’s home. The city installed solar lights along its perimeter in 2015, but as the most recent accident suggests, lights alone won’t keep cars from veering onto his property. Discussions have ensued to extend the guardrail, but some argue this will cause more problems by obstructing visibility.

Despite improvements…Man’s house is hit by car now for the 6th time. Our last story: https://t.co/Tb6yIb7kV4pic.twitter.com/mGxD4EU8ZR

— AngelicaAlvarezABC11 (@AlvarezABC11) August 14, 2016

Although no one in Bernarte’s family (which includes three kids) has been hurt so far, he worries it may be only a matter of time. He’s considered moving—but who in their right mind would buy his home?

Oh, and in a bit of a (figurative) pile-on, Bernarte also lost his homeowners insurance due to the frequency of the accidents. All of which had us wondering: What should this poor guy do?

His predicament isn’t as unusual as you might think. A house located near a highway offramp in San Jose, CA, has been hit by a car four times. In New Brunswick, Canada, a couple have reported that their home, located near an overly sharp turn, has been hit by a car nine times, prompting them to avoid that side of their home completely. Drivers exiting the freeway have even crashed through a home’s roof, as happened in 2015 in South Africa (photo up top).

“These kinds of situations are actually not that rare, and any home located near a busy road or intersection is at risk,” says Florida Realtor® Cara Ameer. “If the road curves, has a blind spot, or is not well-lit, the home can be prone to being a victim of an accident.”

What’s more, she says, there isn’t much you can do.

“As we’ve seen from the incidents in North Carolina and Canada, no matter what is done, road signs, reflectors, flashing lights, guardrails won’t prevent these accidents. It is almost unavoidable.”

How to avoid buying a crash-prone home

All of which serves as a reminder for home buyers everywhere that if they’re eyeing a home in a  high-traffic area, it’s prudent to vet the property carefully.

The Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange maintains records on home insurance claims filed at a particular street address. Also, because cars crashing into homes typically make the news, “see if any news stories turned up any incidents. If there was one that happened, that is probably one too many and there is a likelihood it will happen again,” says Ameer.

Michael Barry, a spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute, also points out that homeowners who are denied insurance due to these types of accidents aren’t just out of luck. For starters, call your state insurance department, which can provide you with a complete list of insurers in your area to make sure your bases are covered. Also the majority of U.S. states offer Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plans, created for homeowners with abnormally high exposure to risks over which they have no control.

Then, of course, you can also erect barriers around your home. The homeowner in San Jose, for instance, has since built a double-brick wall reinforced with cement, rebar, and a curved railroad track inside to steer wayward cars away from his house.

Or if a wall seems too foreboding, Wendy Flynn, a Realtor in Texas suggests, “I have one client who, after seeing this happen to a friends’ house, arranged to have large natural boulders placed in the yard outside the windows—so that they looked decorative and natural—to ensure a car would never crash into their children’s rooms.”

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