The Ins and Outs of Homeowners’ Insurance
Introduction
Without good homeowners insurance protection, it takes only one incident to turn the gift of home ownership into a major problem. A home is often the biggest investment an individual will ever make. It therefore makes sense to protect it with the proper insurance coverage.
Description
Homeowners insurance is designed to safeguard one’s home and the people and possessions within it from any covered losses. This will normally include fire, theft, accidents, and even vandalism. Arguably, the most important part of this insurance coverage is its built-in protection for injuries that happen on your property and result in litigation against you.
Home coverage is a kind of property and casualty insurance that has two main aspects. The main part of this coverage is the protection of the home and the contents within against covered natural disasters, like wind, fire or hail, etc. Another component is the personal liability coverage that protects you from legal action from visitors who are hurt on your property.
Who Benefits?
All homeowners need home insurance coverage and will also be likely mandated to carry it by the financial institution that lent them the money to buy their home in the first place. Note that if you try to avoid obtaining a policy, then the bank will put one in effect for you and then add it to your mortgage payments.
Coverage
Your policy will normally extend coverage to many natural disasters, but not all. Almost universally is the exclusion of earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes from homeowners’ insurance protection. One will need to purchase separate policies for these other potential issues. The many types of home insurance coverage are available at varying levels of protection. Usually your state will have set minimums for what your insurance company must offer in a policy. Of course, your bank will likely have its own minimum mandates for the coverage you must obtain. Basically, the more expensive your home and the belongings within it are, the more you will need to spend on premiums.
Riders (or supplemental coverage) are helpful for your really expensive items, such as priceless jewelry, antiques, collectibles and so on. When obtaining a home policy, your agent should ask about what, if any, unique or valuable items you might have.