I had a question today from someone who had all of their electronic equipment in their house fried!  They said that their neighbor was having a tree removed and when the contractor was removing the stump that was close to the property line that he hit their main electrical line to their house.  The contractor admitted fault and filed a claim on his insurance.  The problem is that his insurance company seems to be in no rush to get out to meet them and pay the claim. 

This is why I would recommend filing the claim with your own homeowners policy.  Your company wants to make you happy and will most likely repond quicker and they want to settle the claim fairly, so that you are happy because you are their client.  After your company has paid you, they will subrogate (go after) with the contractors insurance company. 

This way your claim will be paid and you will be happy and your insurance company will have the headache of dealing with the contractors insurance and not you!

It depends how the water enters your basement and if you have purchased the appropriate coverage.  If the water enters your basement through a crack in the foundation it wouldn’t be covered, but if it entered through a sewer or drain line or a sump pump failure it would be covered, if you purchased the sewer and drain back-up coverage with your homeowners policy. 

If the water in you basement is the result of flooding waters, then you would need to purchase flood insurance, which is a separate policy from your homeowners policy.