Homeowners insurance

Homeowners insurance gives homeowners the security of having coverage if their home becomes damaged. It means your actual home is protected. A standard homeowner’s insurance policy includes coverage for your home structure, coverage for personal belongings and liability protection. Personal property includes clothing, furnishings, home electronics, sports equipment, or any other personal items. Living expenses are also covered if a home is damaged to the point where you can’t live in it. Homeowners insurance doesn’t cover damage to a home from poor maintenance.

Homeowner’s insurance policies will protect the insured if property occurs because of perils such as fire, lighting, explosions, burglary, and windstorms. Coverage also includes liability to others if they were injured on your property and medical payments if medical care is needed because of the injuries. Other structures and property such as garages, fences, trees, shrubs, personal property with some exclusions, money and securities to a certain amount and forgery losses. Coverage also includes property not on the premises such as boats.

If a peril caused damage to a home but is not insured under a policy, it won’t be covered. Say a flood severely damaged your home, which is often excluded, and then a fire destroyed your home even more. The homeowner’s recovery from the fire will only be as much as the value your house was worth after the flood. Recovery under homeowner’s policies may be based on full replacement value or actual cash value. The replacement value is the amount it will cost to replace things in your home that were damaged or to rebuild your home. There’s no reduction in loss from a decrease in value from its original value. Coverage should be equivalent to a fixed percentage of the replacement value of the property.

There may be certain conditions that are required when applying for a homeowner’s insurance policy. Homeowners need to let the insurer know about a loss immediately with a written notice. The insured must resolve the claim with the insurer in a supportive manner. The premiums must be paid on time and in advance of the loss. The insurer has the right to subrogation to make sure the homeowner doesn’t collect twice. An insurer needs to give a notice in approximately ten days if he wants his policy canceled. All facts given by the insurer must be true because all benefits will be denied if there is fraud.