Homeowners insurance (also known as “home insurance”) is a requirement, not a luxury.
Not just because it protects your home and belongings from harm or theft.
Almost all mortgage companies require borrowers to have insurance coverage for the full or fair worth of a property (typically the purchase price) and will not grant a loan or finance a residential real estate transaction until proof of coverage is provided.
You don’t even have to own a home to need insurance; many landlords require renters to obtain renter’s insurance.
However, whether or not it is required, having this type of protection is prudent. We’ll go through the fundamentals of homeowners insurance policy.
What a Homeowner’s Policy Provides
A homeowner’s insurance policy, while infinitely customizable, contains certain standard features that specify what costs the insurer will cover.
Damage to the Interior or Exterior of Your House
In the event of damage caused by fire, hurricanes, lightning, vandalism, or other insured disasters, your insurer will compensate you so that your home can be repaired or rebuilt.
Destruction or mutilation caused by floods, earthquakes, or bad home upkeep is typically not covered, and you may need to purchase separate riders if you want that type of coverage.
Freestanding garages, sheds, and other structures on the land may also require separate coverage under the same standards as the main house.
Clothing, furniture, appliances, and the majority of your home’s other contents are covered if they are damaged in an insured disaster.
You can also buy “off-premises” coverage, which means you can file a claim for misplaced valuables anywhere in the globe.
However, there may be a cap on how much your insurer will reimburse you.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, most insurance companies will cover 50% to 70% of the amount of insurance you have on your home’s structure.
For example, if your house is insured for $200,000, your contents are covered up to $140,000 in value.
If you have a lot of high-priced items (fine art or antiques, fine jewellery, designer clothes), you may wish to pay extra to put them on an itemised schedule, purchase a rider to cover them, or even purchase a new policy to cover them.
Personal Liability for Damage or Injuries
Liability insurance protects you against third-party litigation.
This clause even applies to your dogs! So, if your dog bites your neighbour, Doris, whether, at your house or hers, your insurer will cover her medical expenses.
Alternatively, if your child destroys her Ming vase, you can make a claim to compensate her.
And, just like if someone was harmed on your property, if Doris slips on the broken vase pieces and successfully sues for pain and suffering or lost income, you’ll be compensated for that as well.
While policies can provide as low as $100,000 in coverage, the Insurance Information Institute recommends at least $300,000 in coverage.
A few hundred dollars more in premiums can get you an extra $1 million or more in coverage under umbrella insurance.
Hotel or House Rental While Your Home Is Being Rebuilt or Repaired
It’s unlikely, but if you are forced to leave your house for an extended period of time, it will surely be the best insurance you have ever purchased.
This section of insurance, known as supplementary living expenses, would compensate you for rent, hotel rooms, restaurant meals, and other incidental charges incurred while waiting for your house to be habitable again.
However, before booking a suite at the Ritz-Carlton and ordering caviar from room service, keep in mind that policies are set daily and total restrictions. Of course, if you’re ready to pay extra for coverage, you can increase those daily limits.
Different Types of Homeowners Coverage
All insurance policies are not created equal. The cheapest homeowners insurance will almost certainly provide the least amount of coverage and vice versa.
There are multiple types of homeowners insurance in the United States that have become industry standards; they are labelled HO-1 through HO-8 and offer varying levels of protection depending on the demands of the homeowner and the type of residence being covered.
There are three distinct levels of coverage.
Actual cash value
After depreciation, actual cash value covers the cost of the house plus the value of your goods (i.e., how much the items are currently worth, not how much you paid for them).
Replacement cost
Replacement value plans cover the exact cash value of your home and valuables without depreciation, allowing you to repair or rebuild your home to its original value.
Guaranteed (or extended) replacement cost/value
This comprehensive policy covers whatever it costs to repair or rebuild your home, even if it exceeds your policy limit.
Certain insurers provide extended replacement coverage, which means it provides more coverage than you paid, but there is a cap; typically, it is 20% to 25% greater than the limit.
Some consultants believe that all homeowners should get guaranteed replacement value plans since you need enough insurance to rebuild your home, preferably at current rates, not simply enough insurance to cover the worth of your home (which probably will have risen since you purchased or built).
What Isn’t Covered by Homeowners Insurance?
While homeowner’s insurance normally covers the majority of loss situations, some occurrences, such as natural disasters or other “acts of God,” and acts of war, are typically excluded from coverage.
What if you live in a flood-prone or hurricane-prone area? Or perhaps an earthquake-prone area?
You’ll need riders or an additional policy for earthquake or flood insurance.
You can also add sewage and drain backup coverage, as well as identity recovery coverage, which reimburses you for expenditures incurred as a result of identity theft.
How Are Homeowners Insurance Rates Determined?
So, what is the driving force behind interest rates? According to Noah J. Bank, vice president and insurance advisor at HUB International, it’s the insurer’s assessed “risk” that a homeowner may file a claim.
In determining risk, house insurance firms take into account the homeowner’s previous home insurance claims, as well as claims relating to that property and the homeowner’s credit.
“Claim frequency and severity of the claim play a significant impact in deciding rates, especially if there are multiple claims linked to the same issue, such as water damage, wind storms, and so on,” explains Bank.
While insurers are in business to pay claims, they are also in business to make money.
Insuring a home that has had many claims in the last three to seven years, even if the claim was submitted by a previous owner, might raise your home insurance premium to a higher price tier.
According to Bank, you may not even be eligible for home insurance depending on the number of recent past claims submitted.
The location, crime rate, and availability of building materials will all play a role in setting pricing.
Of course, coverage options such as deductibles or additional riders for art, wine, jewellery, and so on—as well as the amount of coverage desired—all influence the size of an annual premium.
“Pricing and eligibility for home insurance can also vary depending on an insurer’s appetite for certain building construction, roof type, condition or age of the home, heating type (whether an oil tank is on-premises or underground), proximity to the coast, swimming pool, trampoline, security systems, and other factors,” Bank explains.
What other factors influence your rates? “The state of your home may also diminish the interest of a home insurance carrier in offering coverage,” says Bill Van Jura, an insurance planning expert in Poughkeepsie, New York.
“A poorly maintained home increases the likelihood that the insurer will pay on a damage claim.” Even the presence of a dog in your home can cause your home insurance costs to rise. Depending on the breed, some dogs can do significant damage.
Cost-Cutting Insurance Tips
While it is never a good idea to skimp on coverage, there are strategies to reduce insurance prices.
Maintain a security system
A burglar alarm that is monitored by a central station or directly linked to a local police station can assist reduce the homeowner’s annual premiums by 5% or more.
To qualify for the reduction, the homeowner must normally present proof of central monitoring to the insurance carrier in the form of a bill or a contract.
Another important consideration is smoke alarms. While most newer homes have them, installing them in older homes can save the homeowner 10% or more on annual premiums.
CO detectors, deadbolt locks, sprinkler systems, and even weatherproofing can assist.
Raise your deductible
The bigger the deductible, like with health insurance or vehicle insurance, the cheaper the annual premiums.
However, choosing a large deductible means that claims/problems that generally cost only a few hundred dollars to solve, like broken windows or damaged sheetrock from a leaking pipe, will almost certainly be covered by the homeowner. And these can quickly mount up.
Look for multiple policy discounts
Many insurance firms offer a 10% or higher discount to consumers who have multiple insurance contracts under the same roof (such as auto or health insurance).
Consider getting a price from the same company that provides your home insurance for other forms of insurance. You could wind up saving money on two rates.
Plan ahead for renovation
Consider the materials that will be utilised if you plan to build an addition or an adjacent structure to your home.
Because wood-framed structures are very combustible, they typically cost more to insure.
Structures made of cement or steel, on the other hand, will be less expensive because they are less likely to be destroyed by fire or harsh weather conditions.
Another factor that most homeowners should consider, but often do not, is the insurance costs connected with building a swimming pool.
Pools and/or other potentially hazardous gadgets (such as trampolines) can increase annual insurance premiums by 10% or more.
Pay off your mortgage
This is obviously easier said than done, but homeowners who own their homes outright will most certainly see their premiums decrease.
Why? The insurance company believes that if you own a home completely, you will take better care of it.
Make regular policy reviews and comparisons
Whatever the initial price, you should do some comparison shopping, including looking into group coverage choices through credit or trade unions, businesses, or association memberships.
Even after obtaining a policy, investors should compare the costs of competing insurance policies to their own at least once a year.
Furthermore, they should check their current insurance and make note of any changes that may have occurred that could result in cheaper rates.
Maybe you dismantled the trampoline, paid off the mortgage, or installed a clever sprinkler system.
If this is the case, just notifying the insurance company of the change(s) and providing proof in the form of photos and/or receipts could result in significant savings in insurance premiums.
“Some firms give credits for comprehensive plumbing, electric, heat, and roof upgrades,” Van Jura explains.
Make monthly appraisals of your most valued possessions to determine if you have enough coverage to replace them.
“Many consumers are under-insured with the contents element of their policy because they have not done a house inventory and added the overall worth to compare with what the policy is covering,” says John Bodrozic, co-founder of HomeZada, a home maintenance app.
Look for changes in the neighbourhood that may result in lower rates.
Installing a fire hydrant within 100 feet of the house, for example, or constructing a fire substation nearby, may result in lower premiums.
How to Compare Home Insurance Companies
Here is a checklist of search and purchasing guidelines for finding an insurance carrier.
1. Compare statewide costs and insurers
When it comes to insurance, you want to make sure you are dealing with a legitimate and creditworthy supplier.
Your first step should be to visit the website of your state’s Department of Insurance to learn the rating for each home insurance company licenced to do business in your state, as well as any consumer complaints registered against the insurance company.
The website should also include an average cost of home insurance in various counties and cities.
2. Do a company health check
Examine the ratings of potential home insurance carriers on the websites of the leading credit agencies (such as A.M. Best, Moody’s, J.D. Power, and Standard & Poor’s) as well as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and Weiss Research.
These websites collect consumer complaints against corporations as well as general customer feedback, claim processing, and other information.
In some cases, these websites rate a house insurance business’s financial condition to determine whether or not the company can pay its claims.
3. Look at the claims response
Following a significant loss, the pressure of paying for repairs out of pocket while waiting for payment from your insurer may place your family in a tough financial position.
A lot of insurers are outsourcing fundamental activities, such as claim processing.
Before you buy a policy, find out whether your claims will be handled by licenced adjusters or third-party contact centres.
“Your agent should be able to provide input on his or her experience with a carrier as well as its market reputation,” says Mark Galante, president of PURE Group of Insurance Companies’ field operations.
“Seek out a carrier with a proven track record of fair, prompt payouts, and make sure to grasp your insurer’s attitude on holdback provisions, which are when an insurance company withholds a portion of their payment until a homeowner can establish that repairs were started.”
4. Current Policyholder Satisfaction
Every organisation will claim to provide excellent claims service.
However, cut through the noise by inquiring about the insurer’s retention rate—that is, what proportion of policyholders renew each year—from your agent or a company representative.
Many businesses report retention rates of 80% to 90%. Annual reports, online evaluations, and good old-fashioned testimonies from individuals you trust can also provide satisfaction information.
5. Get Multiple Quotes
“Obtaining multiple quotes is important when looking for any type of insurance; however, it is especially important for homeowner’s insurance since coverage needs can vary so much,” says Eric Stauffer, former president of ExpertInsuranceReviews.com.
“Comparing several companies will yield the best overall results.”
How many quotations should you obtain? Five or so will give you a solid idea of what individuals are providing and how much leverage you have in discussions.
However, before gathering quotations from other companies, seek a price from insurers with whom you currently have a relationship.
As previously said, a carrier with whom you currently do business (for your car, boat, etc.) may offer better prices because you are an existing customer.
Some businesses provide a special discount to the elderly or persons who work from home.
The reasoning is that both of these groups are more likely to be on-premises, making the house less vulnerable to burglary.