Your home is prone to losses due to several factors. It could be due to theft, disaster, or accident. You can protect yourself from hardship due to damage to the house by getting a homeowners insurance cover. It is the most essential financial and personal property coverage you can get. Homeowners insurance premiums have increased by 1.6% and are likely to rise further.
With these increased rates, you must find the cheapest homeowners insurance cover that gives you the maximum benefits. Here is what your insurance should cover.
The Structure of Your Home
The homeowners coverage will pay for the repair and rebuilding of your home if it is damaged due to fire, hail, hurricane, lightning, and other similar disasters listed out in the policy. Usually, detached structures such as garage gazebo, or tool shed are also covered in this policy. It constitutes about 10% of your total cover.
The policy will, however, not cover damage caused by flood, earthquake, and day-to-day wear and tear. These have to be added separately in your cover.
Personal Property
Your home is more than the structure itself. It includes the items that you have in it to live comfortably. It includes clothes, furniture, appliances, and other similar items. These could be destroyed along with the structure, or be stolen. Your homeowners insurance should cover this as well.
Most standard policies usually allow coverage of 50% to 70% of the structure towards the personal property. You can increase it if you think you will need more. Items such as jewelry, fur coats, art, collectibles, and similar such things are covered but have a limit to the amount payable by the insurance companies. Its cover also provides a small compensation for trees and plants on the property.
Liability Protection
It protects you from lawsuits due to injury or property damage caused by you or your family member or even your pets. This means that if your pet accidentally ruined your neighbor’s expensive rug, then your cover will pay for it.
Liability protection usually begins at $100,000 even for the cheapest homeowners insurance and can go up as per your requirements. If you think that you need more coverage, you can go for an umbrella cover that provides broader protection.
It should also provide no-fault coverage. So, if someone else is injured on your property, then the person can submit their medical bills to your insurance company.
Additional Living Expenses
This comes into play when you have to live away from your home due to damage to it. The expenses include rent, hotel room expenses, food expenses, and similar items. These expenses are covered until your home is being rebuilt.
The cover will have a limit to the ALE payable. The insurance company, however, will still have to pay the full cost of repair and rebuild your home even if you use up the entire ALE.
As a homeowner, you know the importance of insurance. Finding the cheapest homeowners insurance that gives you all these benefits and more can save you a lot of heartache in the future. So, don’t delay the decision to get homeowners insurance.