What does Homeowner Insurance Cover?

Homeowners insurance covers your house, your liability exposure, and your belongings. However, if need be, it’s possible to add more coverages. Losses due to causes such as wind damage, vandalism, and theft are often covered on a standard homeowners insurance policy. However, homeowners insurance typically excludes coverage for earthquakes and floods.

The kind of policy that you purchase from an insurance company determines the specific protection you get. There are different policies with varying packages; therefore, you should discuss the best suitable coverages for your property with your insurance company. The company will compensate you if an event covered in your policy destroys or damages your house. If you are not well versed with homeowners insurance and may be asking yourself, what is homeowners insurance? It is a property insurance covering damages and losses to a person’s residence and other assets in the residence, including furnishings. There exist multiple home insurance companies, and it’s thus essential that one is careful when selecting the insurance company to get their homeowner’s insurance from. One can use online review sites to choose a reputable company. Below are some of the things covered by homeowners insurance policies:

Damage to your house
Suppose damage happens to your house due to hurricanes, vandalism, lightning, fire, or other disasters covered in your policy. In that case, your policy company will compensate you to either repair your house or completely rebuild it. Destructions from earthquakes, poor home maintenance, and floods are mostly not covered. Therefore, if you want such kind of protection, you may require a detached stipulation. Separate structures like sheds and garages may also need separate coverage.
Appliances, clothing, furniture, and any other content of your home are covered if they are damaged in an insured calamity. You can also obtain a “off-premises” where you can claim compensation, for instance, for lost jewelry. However, there is always a limit on the amount to be reimbursed by your insurer. If you have expensive belongings such as antiques, designer clothes, or jewelry, you might be required to pay extra to include the items in your policy, or even you may need to buy an entirely separate policy.

Liability Protection
A typical insurance policy covers you when an outsider is injured while on your premises, and you’ve been held liable. Personal liability cover helps you to pay lost wages, medical bills, and other costs that you are legally responsible for injured persons. Instances held liable include a guest slipping and falling & injuring themselves while on your premises. Liability protection will also pay for your legal fees if you are taken to court and sued because of an accident. They also help cover medical expenses if an outsider, like a mail carrier, visitor, or neighbor, is injured by your pet. 

Additional living expenses
Typically home insurance caters for costs incurred when you’ve been forced out of your house because of damages caused by an insured disaster. It covers restaurant meals and venue hotel accommodation bills you incur while your home is being repaired or rebuilt. If you rent out your house partially, home insurance companies will reimburse you for the sum you would’ve collected from the tenant if your home had not been damaged. However, before you book expensive suites and luxurious services, note that policies foist stern daily and total limits. Of course, you can increase those daily limits if you are willing to pay more.

Identity theft
You may incur thousands of dollars to repair or replace stolen items or properties vandalized by thieves breaking into your home. Some insurers provide theft coverage policies within standard homeowners policies, but others offer it as optional additional coverage. This coverage helps you pay for expenses after your identity is stolen. It can also pay for lost wages, legal fees, or solicitor costs associated with your credit restoration.
Different standardized homeowners insurance offers several levels of coverage according to the needs of the homeowner and the nature of residence being covered. There are three primary levels of coverage:
Actual cash value- this covers the cost of the house together with the value of your possessions minus their depreciation (i.e., the current worth of items, not the initial amount you paid for them).
Replacement cost- this policy provides coverage of the actual cash value of your home and belongings without deducting the depreciation so that you can be able to rebuild or repair your home up to the original state after compensation.
Extended replacement value- this is a comprehensive policy that guarantees compensation for whatever it costs to rebuild or repair your home, even when it exceeds your policy limit.

In conclusion, this article has discussed the essential items covered by homeowner insurance policies. It is crucial to understand the best policy to protect you, and this article helps you with this.