What Is Homeowners Insurance Coverage?

Before attempting to find the best homeowners insurance coverage you should make sure that you are familiar with what homeowners insurance is and what it can do for you. A standard policy provides financial coverage to your house and the property within the house. Natural disasters, theft and other maladies that can occur are usually covered in your policy. Some exceptions include flood and earthquake protection, which require additional coverage. Another feature that home insurance covers is damage caused by household pets and any legal liabilities to anyone caused harm by yourself or family members on your property.

The amount of house insurance you may require is based on 4 areas: Home structure, personal property, liability for protection to others and some additional costs associated with repairs to your home.

House Structure

- Always make sure you obtain enough insurance to cover the cost incurred to rebuild your current home at today's market prices in the event a natural disaster should take place. You don't really need to include the cost of the land and you shouldn't base the amount on the price you paid for your house as the cost of rebuilding fluctuates.

Personal Property

- As much as you value your personal possessions many insurance policies will only provide coverage between 50% and 70% based on your current homeowners insurance coverage. You play a big part in making sure your property is properly covered so make sure to do an inventory listing all of your possessions. Try to be as detailed as possible, after all this is your property and you deserve to be reimbursed if anything bas happens. You'll have to be careful in this area. If you own expensive jewelry or furs then you should seek out additional coverage through a floater or endorsement policy. In most cases an insurance company will only compensate you $1000 to $2000 for jewelry or furs that are stolen or lost in a fire. I can relate a true story to you where my wife and I had $12,000 worth of jewelry stolen and were only reimbursed $1000 because we didn't have additional coverage for her jewelry collection with a floater. The lesson learned was always to make sure our possessions were accurately and correctly insured against future losses.

Liability Coverage

- This part of your homeowners insurance coverage provides protection for you against lawsuits for bodily injury or property damage that you or family members cause to other people. It also pays for damage caused by pets. It pays for both the cost of defending you in court and for any damages a court rules you must pay. Although many insurance companies provide $100,000 worth of coverage, it's a good idea to increase that amount to $300,000 or more.

Additional Costs - This pays the additional costs of temporarily living away from your home if you can't live in it due to a fire, severe storm or other insured disaster. It covers hotel bills, restaurant meals and other living expenses incurred while your home is being rebuilt. If you live in an area with a high propensity of natural disasters then you definitely want to make sure you're adequately covered here.

Hopefully this information detailing what homeowners insurance coverage was helpful and gave you a better idea of what your standard house insurance policy is comprised of.

By Timothy Gorman