Homeowners Insurance Basics and Home Inventory Services

Home insurance basics

Most people have homeowner's insurance policies to protect their home and valuable possessions.

Although your homeowner's policy will cover some personal property losses, you may be required to insure valuables such as antiques, jewelry, furs, works of art, silverware, and camera equipment separately under special riders to your policy.

Insurance Companies rightfully want to avoid giving consumers the idea that they can be as careless as they want with any piece of property that is insured. Therefore you can avoid problems by exercising common sense when protecting your insured property by treating it as if it were not insured.

Taking care of your possessions is good for you and your insurance company.

The most important thing you can do is to hire a Home Inventory Service to professionally document your personal property. This will become valuable to you after you suffer a loss and begin the claim process.

There are several basic types of home insurance policies:

HO-1

Basic homeowners policy
Covers your house and possessions against 11 different perils.

HO-2

Broad homeowners policy
Covers house and contents against 17 perils, with premiums running about 5 percent to 10 percent more than an HO-1 policy.

HO-3

Special homeowners policy
Covers all perils except those specifically excluded by the policy. Costs 10 percent to 15 percent more than an HO-1 policy.

HO-4

Renters Policy
Covers 17 named perils and includes liability coverage. It does not insure the dwelling itself.

HO-5

Extensive homeowners policy

Covers damage from practically everything except earthquakes, wars and floods.

HO-6

For owners of co-ops or condominiums
Provides personal property coverage, liability coverage and specific coverage of improvements to the owner’s unit. Insurance provided by the owner’s association normally covers most of the actual structure.

HO-8

Policy for older homes
Covers the same perils as HO-1 but pays only for repair costs or actual cash value, since replacement cost could make the policy costly.

HO-A

Covers your home and possessions against named perils only, for actual cash value.

HO-B

Covers the dwelling for all perils unless excluded against all risks and contents against named perils. The house is covered for replacement cost up to policy limits, while contents are covered for actual cash value unless you buy additional replacement cost coverage.

HO-C

Covers house and contents against all risks not specifically excluded by the policy. Again, the house is insured for replacement cost up to policy limits, while contents are covered for actual cash value unless you buy additional coverage.

There are variations on these policies as well. For example, landlords can buy coverage that insures only their buildings and not your personal property (which is what a renters policy would cover). You can get special policies to cover mobile homes (a.k.a. manufactured housing).

Contact us for more information.