What Does Homeowner’s Insurance Cover

How Do I Calculate The Replacement Cost Of My Home

Home replacement cost is the total amount required to rebuild your home to its original standard. Your dwelling limit must be at least 80% of your home’s rebuild value to be fully covered. Home replacement cost can be calculated by multiplying your area’s average per-foot rebuilding cost by your home’s square footage.

Coverage For Natural Disasters

Its not always easy to understand what disasters a home insurance policy covers. Some policies may cover certain kinds of damage, but not others. Your coverage can also vary depending where you live, how your home is built, the options you choose, and more.

To help answer your questions about coverage for natural disasters, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Inc. and The Actuarial Foundation have put together A Homeowners Guide to Natural Disasters. This online guide addresses floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, lightning, and other threats to your home. It also provides information about insurance products and forms, which vary for different types of disasters. Additionally, it shares steps you can take to help prevent losses from natural disasters.

What Discounts Does Auto

Auto-Owners Insurance home insurance comes with several potential discounts to lower your rates even more:

• Multi-policy: If you bundle home and auto insurance policies with Auto-Owners Insurance, you can save an average of 18% on premiums.

• Protective devices: If you have burglar alarms, fire alarms, fire sprinklers, or other safety or security devices installed in your home.

• Water shutoff system: If you have a qualifying and properly maintained home water shut-off system that automatically turns off the water supply when it detects a leak.

• Automatic backup generator: If you have a qualifying backup generator.

• Claim-free: If youve gone a certain number of years without filing a claim.

• Mortgage free: if you dont have an existing mortgage or line of credit on your home.

• Mature homebuyer: For Auto-Owners customers who are 65 years of age or older.

• Payment history: If youve paid your premiums on time in the past 36 months.

• Green discount: If you opt for paperless billing and pay your premiums online.

• Advanced quote: If you get an Auto-Owners Insurance home insurance quote at least a week before your current policy expires.

• Paid-in-full: If you pay your premiums for the year upfront. Although this discount does not apply to homeowners who pay through their escrow account.

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Is Homeowners Insurance Required

Homeowners insurance isnt required by law, but if you have a mortgage, your lender will likely require you to insure the home to protect its investment. Even if you dont have a mortgage, home insurance is almost always a wise purchase. Because it gives you property and liability coverage, a homeowners policy is a financial safety net you may someday be glad to have.

What Are The 5 Things To Know About Homeowners Coverage

Asked by: Halie Schneider5 Things to Know About Homeowner’s Insurance

• Know about exclusions to coverage. For example, most insurance policies do not cover flood or earthquake damage as a standard item. …
• Know about dollar limitations on claims. …
• Know the replacement cost. …
• Know the actual cash value. …
• Know the liability.

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Do You Have Enough Homeowners Liability Insurance

Liability claims accounted for just 2.8% of all homeowners insurance claims in 2019. As rare as they are, however, they can be costly. In 2019, the average loss from a liability claim was $22,363. Fortunately, protecting yourself is fairly inexpensive. Home liability insurance usually costs about $10 annually for each $100,000 worth of coverage, according to an Insure.com analysis.

But how much liability coverage is enough? In a lawsuit, all your assets could be at risk, including your home, retirement accounts, investments and savings, so liability coverage should provide coverage that’s at least equivalent to your total net worth.

Most homeowners insurance starts with $100,000 worth of liability insurance, but you can buy more. You may also want umbrella insurance, which provides additional coverage in increments of $1 million for liability coverage that exceeds the limits of your home or auto insurance policy. You’ll generally need a home and auto policy with the same insurer and at least $300,000 in homeowners liability insurance to buy umbrella coverage. An insurance agent can help you determine the amount and type of coverage you need.

How Does Homeowners Insurance Work

Homeowners insurance coverage may provide you with protection if the unexpected happens to your home or property. Your home insurance company provides you with coverage for your home, belongings, and the other structures on your property. If a sudden and accidental loss occurs, you can file a claim with your insurance company. You will potentially receive payment for covered losses, minus any home insurance deductible, up to your policy’s coverage limit.

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Windstorm And Hail Insurance On The Gulf Coast

If you live on the Texas coast or in Harris County on Galveston Bay, your homeowners policy doesnt cover wind and hail damage. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association sells wind and hail coverage for coastal residents. You buy TWIA coverage from local insurance agents. Depending on where you live, you might need flood insurance before TWIA will sell you a policy. You also might need a home inspection by an engineer or a windstorm inspector. For more information, visit twia.org or call 800-788-8247.

Dont wait until the last minute to buy wind and hail insurance. TWIA wont sell you a policy if theres a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

Learn more: Home, flood, wind: Which policies do you need? | Watch: Windstorm insurance inspections

How Does A Medpay Claim Work

Submitting a claim or requesting reimbursement for medical payments coverage is relatively simple.

If someone has been injured at your home, such as a friend or neighbor, they can submit their medical bills to your insurance company, says Liu. This way, the bills can be paid quickly and without a liability claim being filed against you.

Or, you or your guest can pay for your guests injuries out of pocket, and then you can submit a claim to your insurance company for reimbursement. The Insurance Information Institute recommends following these steps if you need to file a claim:

• Take pictures of where the accident took place.
• Document how the accident occurred and gather contact details for the injured party.
• Obtain receipts for any expenses incurred.
• Contact your insurance agent or carrier to file the claim.

Fortunately, your policys deductible doesnt apply to claims submitted for MedPay coverage.

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Home Invasion By Unruly Bears

If a hungry bear or other wild animal invades looking to raid your fridge, any damage to the home should be covered by your homeowners insurance policy. This doesn’t cover damage done by pets or other animals you own, and the animals typically need to be considered “wild” for your insurance to kick in. Read the fine print because there are likely to be exceptions for destruction at the hands of common household pests, such as rats, squirrels, and insects.

Reading Your Home Insurance Policy

If you pay for home insurance, you should have received a declarations page among your policy documents. On it you’ll find what’s covered in your policy under the categories dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, liability and medical coverage. Each of these categories, while fairly self-evident, could use a bit more explanation. While the explanations below are in broad strokes, it’s always the best practice to confirm independently what your policy does and does not cover.

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Loss Of Use/additional Living Expenses Coverage

If you cannot live in your home because of a problem covered by the policy, such as a fire, loss of use coverage reimburses extra expenses like hotel bills, meals and other costs .

Loss of use coverage is often set at a certain percentage of your dwelling coverage. For example, if your loss of use limit is 30% of your dwelling coverage, and your dwelling coverage is $300,000, you would have up to $90,000 for additional living expenses. You may be able to increase the coverage limit.

What Is A Homeowners Insurance Deductible

The deductible is the amount the insured party has to pay when a claim is made. You can decrease your insurance costs by increasing the amount of your deductible, meaning youll be required to pay more if you ever do have an incident that requires you to make a claim. Keep in mind many mortgage providers require homeowners to carry a certain amount of insurance on their property with a deductible thats below a specified limit.

Check with your mortgage provider before opting for the lowest possible rate with the highest possible deductible. It might be tempting to go for the lower rate, but if you ever do have to make an insurance claim, you might fine youre responsible for a $10,000 deductible.

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What To Expect With Auto

• How to get a quote: To get a homeowners insurance quote, youll have to call a local Auto-Owners Insurance agent. It has an agent lookup tool on its website, however it does not offer an online quote option.

• Customer service options: To contact Auto-Owners general customer service department, call 1-800-346-0346. For billing questions specific to home, auto, and business insurance, call 1-800-288-8740.

• How to file a claim: To file a home insurance claim with Auto-Owners Insurance, youll need to first call your local agent to report the loss. If youre attempting to report a claim after normal business hours, on a weekend, or a holiday, call Auto-Owners after-hours claim reporting service at 1-888-252-4626. Once you file your claim, you can track its progress online.

• How to cancel your policy: To cancel your Auto-Owners Insurance policy, call your local agent.

Whats Not Covered By Homeowners Insurance

7 Min Read | Dec 17, 2021

When it comes to homeowners insurance, there are a ton of myths floating around about what is and isnt covered. And this misinformation can leave people assuming theyre protected when theyre actually not. This causes real issues if a natural disaster thats not covered by your insurance company damages your house.

Home repairs can be devastating. Dont let lack of knowledge prevent you from getting the right coverage.

Well break down all the things that arent covered by standard homeowners insurance policies so you can protect your biggest investment.

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What Is Homeowners Insurance

Homeowners insurance is a type of financial protection that covers your home, possessions, and total assets from unexpected disasters or accidents.

For example, if your home or belongings are damaged by a fire or major storm, homeowners insurance can cover the cost of repairs so that you dont have to. If you need to live somewhere else during repairs, insurance can pay for that, too.

In addition to paying for damage or loss to your physical property, homeowners insurance can also cover the cost of medical bills and expensive lawsuits in the event youre legally responsible for injuring someone or damaging their property.

What Does Homeowners Insurance Cover And Not Cover

Kirsten Rohrs Schmitt is an accomplished professional editor, writer, proofreader, and fact-checker. She has expertise in finance, investing, real estate, and world history. Throughout her career, she has written and edited content for numerous consumer magazines and websites, crafted resumes and social media content for business owners, and created collateral for academia and nonprofits. Kirsten is also the founder and director of Your Best Edit find her on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Learning what is and isnt covered by homeowners insurance often requires reading the fine print on your insurance contract before you purchase a policy. Although every homeowners insurance policy is different, almost all insurance policies have some coverages in common.

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Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Theft

Yes, your policy covers theft .

When theft is covered

Homeowners insurance covers theft both inside and outside your home. So if your phone is stolen in a coffee shop, or someone snatches your bike from your garage, your Lemonade home insurance policy will help compensate you for the loss.

Take note that homeowners insurance covers both stolen items and structural damage to your home caused by theft. So if a burglar damages your doors, windows, or floors, youre covered.

When theft isnt covered

First off, theres generally a limit to how much your insurance company can reimburse you for stolen cashat Lemonade, its $200. Therefore, reporting a stolen backpack loaded with a few books and $300,000 in cash wont get you very far.

In the case of jewelry, theres also a $1,500 sublimit when it comes to theft. If you want to protect the full value of your necklaces, rings, and gems, consider adding Extra Coverage.

Ology: Our System For Ranking The Best Home Insurance Companies

Our team surveyed dozens of home insurance providers and created a scoring system to assess and compare each companys quality and service. We reached out for sample quotes, both over the phone and online, to simulate an authentic customer experience. Here are the factors that account for our provider scores:

• Cost : We compare cost data for homes nationwide to assess how competitively priced each provider is. We also consider each companys available discounts when determining its overall cost of coverage.
• Coverage : We analyze the comprehensiveness of each providers standard home insurance policy and compare optional policy endorsements to determine quality of coverage.
• Availability and ease of use : We evaluate each companys customer service options, such as live chat, a customer support phone line, and multiple channels for filing claims and generating quotes. Similarly, we score providers based on their digital resources, such as a mobile app or online customer portal.
• Brand trust : We gauge reputation by evaluating consumer reviews and third-party financial strength and customer experience ratings, including from J.D. Power, AM Best and customer review aggregators.

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Plan Ahead For Renovation

If you plan to build an addition or adjacent structure to your home, consider the materials that will be used. Typically, wood-framed structures will cost more to insure because they are highly flammable. Conversely, cement- or steel-framed structures will cost less because these are less likely to succumb to fire or adverse weather conditions.

Another thing most homeowners should, but often don’t, consider are the insurance costs associated with building a swimming pool. In fact, items such as pools and/or other potentially injurious devices can drive the annual insurance costs up by 10% or more.

Other Types Of Property Insurance

• Renters insurance covers your clothes, furniture, and other personal property if theyre stolen or damaged while youre living in a rented house or apartment. Renters insurance wont pay to fix the house or apartment building. The building owners policy does that. You might not need renters insurance if youre still a dependent. Your parents homeowners policy might cover your property, even if youre not living at home.
• Condominium insurance covers your personal property and the interior of your unit. It also provides liability protection and pays additional living expenses.
• Townhouse insurance can either cover the interior and exterior of your townhouse, or just the interior. The difference depends on whether the homeowners association has a master policy that covers the exterior. If it does, you can buy a policy that covers only the interior. If the associations master policy doesnt cover the exterior, you can buy a policy that covers both the interior and exterior. Townhouse insurance also covers your personal property and provides liability and additional living expenses coverage.
• Mobile home insurance covers the mobile home, your personal property, and additional living expenses. It also provides liability coverage.
• Farm and ranch insurance is for homes outside city limits on land used for farming and raising livestock.

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Why Do You Need Homeowners Insurance Coverage

For one thing, you probably can’t buy a house without it. But honestlywhy wouldn’t you want homeowners insurance? Your home is one of your largest investments. Makes sense to protect it, doesn’t it?

When you’re looking for homeowners insurance, apply the Goldilocks principleyou’re looking for a policy that’s just right. The GEICO Insurance Agency makes available a wide range of coverage options. Find out what’s best for you with a free online home insurance quote, or call to discuss your options with one of our licensed insurance agents.

What To Do If Someone Is Injured In Your Home

If you think you or the injured person may want to file a claim, tell the insurance company about the incident right away. If the person later sues you, inform your insurance company immediately.

The process that follows a personal injury is similar to what happens after a car accident. Take photos of any damages or injuries as well as the setting where they occurred. Get names and contact information of any witnesses, as well as the injured person, so your insurance company can contact them to handle the claim.

For the injury to be covered, the injured person generally must prove you were somehow negligent, which could mean you’re ignoring unsafe conditions on your property or not cautioning visitors. For example, if you warn a visitor to be careful about a loose step on your porch, you’re not being negligent. If you know about the loose board and say nothing, you could be considered negligent.

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