It’s no secret; houses are one of the most expensive things most people will purchase in their life. Protecting your investment is important, and finding out all the information about the avenues you can take to protect your home is also important. While not required, homeowners’ insurance is important to ensure that you’re protected from unexpected loss. But what does home insurance cover, and how does that affect you?+
Protecting Homeowners From Unexpected Loss.
What a homeowner’s insurance policy covers can change a lot from company to company, plan to plan, even region to region. Most standard policies will cover two primary types of loss, property and belongings damage, and basic liability. For instance, if your house burns down, if your policy has a fire clause as most do, then your home insurance company will pay to repair your home and replace items that were claimed on the policy. This is an example of property and belongings coverage. If your policy covers loss of use, then your insurance company will help you get a place to stay while the repairs are more.
If someone trips over a hose in your backyard and breaks their nose, as long as you have liability coverage, your insurance company will cover this. Most basic homeowners’ policies include liability coverage, and somethings can make this more expensive. For instance, many insurance companies raise your rates if you have a trampoline because of the added risk of injury that trampolines bring.
More Advanced Homeowners Insurance Policies.
Now, a basic homeowner’s policy does cover a good deal of perils. Typically loss is covered by fire, tornados, hail, riot, vandalism, aircraft, explosions, smoke, and eruptions, as well as a few others. You can get expanded insurance policies to cover further perils like the weight of snow, damage from falling objects, accidental damage from water, steam, electrical currants, HVAC systems, and household appliances just to name a few.
Most standard policies won’t cover things like war, earthquake, flooding, intentional loss, and neglect. This can be a real bad thing for people that live in places like Carmel, Indiana, that are high flood risk. Fortunately, you can usually get policies to cover these specific kinds of perils for the most part. It would be very surprising if any insurance company covered intentional loss, and it is very unlikely you would ever find a company that did not exclude intentional loss acts.
Sections I And Ii In Homeowners Insurance Policies.
Most insurance policies are structured the same, not to say that the contents of each policy are identical. Section I is almost always an outline of your property and belongings protection. Here you will find the terms for this protection, as well as the limits on things like jewelry and cash. This is also where you can find the loss of the use clause.
Section II, as you may have guessed, is where you’ll find the outlines for your liability coverage, as well as medical payments to others. This section goes over how the homeowner will be protected from liability if someone is injured, and it is the homeowner’s fault, whether on the property or not. It also goes over the coverage for costs for things such as legal defense, medical expenses, and funeral expenses if these things are needed.
Find The Right Policy For You.
Having a homeowner’s insurance policy is a good way to keep your property safe, as well as save you a whole lot of money in the worst-case scenario. Without a homeowner’s insurance policy, if the worst case happens, you’re liable to pay for all damages out of pocket as well as responsible for finding a place to stay while your house is uninhabitable. Homeowners insurance is an easy way to protect yourself financially against damage that occurs that is entirely out of your control.
