Homeowners Insurance

Homeowners insurance protects your home against claims arising from fire, theft, vandalism and water bursts. However, flood and earthquake coverage are not part of a homeowners policy and need to be written separately.

A homeowners policy is made of several parts.

Dwelling Coverage: This protects the home itself. It is important to have your home insured 100% to value. Getting an appraisal at regular intervals and updating your limits when you do any remodeling is often overlooked and can lead to unfortunate surprises when a claim occurs. Your agent can also do a cost estimator to make sure you have sufficient coverage.

Other Structures: Covers other buildings on your property that are not attached to the home, such as a detached garage, a shop or a shed.

Personal Property: This covers your belongings in the home if they are destroyed or stolen. However, high value possessions need to be scheduled, such as jewelry, furs, cameras, musical instruments, stamp or coin collections, fine arts, guns and silverware.

Loss of Use: If you are misplaced from your home, loss of use will cover the expenses to put you and your family up while your home is being repaired.

Personal Liability and Medical Expenses: If someone not living in your household is injured on your property and files a claim against you to pay for their expenses, your liability coverage will cover the costs for any legal or court fees and the medical expenses coverage will pay for their medical bills.

Ordinance of Law: Most companies include this coverage in their policies. If your house is damaged or destroyed and has to be rebuild, ordinance of law coverage helps pay for any upgrades needed to bring your house up to date with current county building codes.

Other coverages, such as identity theft can be added to a homeowners policy for an additional premium.