Home Owner Insurance
Home owner insurance provides financial protection against disasters.
A standard policy insures the home itself and the things you keep in it.
Home owner insurance is a package policy. This means that it covers both damage to your property and your liability or legal responsibility for any injuries and property damage you or members of your family cause to other people. This includes damage caused by household pets.
Damage caused by most disasters is covered but there are exceptions. The most significant are damage caused by floods, earthquakes and poor maintenance. You must buy two separate policies for flood and earthquake coverage. Maintenance-related problems
Homeowners insurance formation:
Are there different types of policies
Yes. A person who owns his or her home would have a different policy from someone who rents. Policies also differ on the amount of insurance coverage provided.
The different types of homeowners policies are fairly standard throughout the country. However, individual states and companies may offer policies that are slightly different or go by other names such as standard or deluxe. The one exception is the state of Texas, where policies vary somewhat from policies in other states. The Texas Insurance Department has detailed information on its various homeowners policies.
The chart below lists the disasters covered in each of the following types of policies:
Dwelling & personal property
Dwelling
Personal
property
Dwelling & personal property
Perils
Basic HO-1*+
Broad HO-2*
Special HO-3*
Special HO-3
Renters HO-4
Condo/
Co-op HO-6
Modified Coverage HO-8
1. Fire or lightning
2. Windstorm or hail
3. Explosion
4. Riot or civil commotion
5. Damage caused by aircraft
6. Damage caused by vehicles
7. Smoke
8. Vandalism or malicious mischief
9. Theft
10. Volcanic eruption
11. Falling object
12. Weight of ice, snow or sleet
13. Accidental discharge or overflow of water or steam from within a plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or automatic fire-protective sprinkler system, or from a household appliance.
14. Sudden and accidental tearing apart, cracking, burning, or bulging of a steam or hot water heating system, an air conditioning or automatic fire-protective system.
15. Freezing of a plumbing, heating, air conditioning or automatic, fire-protective sprinkler system, or of a household appliance.
16. Sudden and accidental damage from artificially generated electrical current (does not include loss to a tube, transistor or similar electronic component)
All perils except flood, earthquake, war, nuclear accident, landslide, mudslide, sinkhole and others specified in your policy. Check your policy for a complete list of perils excluded. x
* HO-1, HO-2 and HO-3 refer to standard Homeowners Policies.
+HO-1 has been discontinued in most states.
If you own your home
If you own the home you live in, you have several policies to choose from. The most popular policy is the HO-3, which provides the broadest coverage. Owners of multi-family homes generally purchase an HO-3 with an endorsement to cover the risks associated with having renters live in their homes.
HO-1: Limited coverage policy
This bare bones policy covers you against the first 10 disasters. It's no longer available in most states.
HO-2: Basic policy
A basic policy provides protection against all 16 disasters. There is a version of HO-2 designed for mobile homes.
HO-3: The most popular policy
This special policy protects your home from all perils except those specifically excluded. (Click on the link below for a sample HO-3 form; you will need Acrobat which you can download, free of charge, from the Adobe Web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/).
Download/View File: HO-3 Form (160 K)
HO-8: Older home
Designed for older homes, this policy usually reimburses you for damage on an actual cash value basis which means replacement cost less depreciation. Full replacement cost policies may not be available for some older homes.
If you rent your home
HO4-Renter
Created specifically for those who rent the home they live in, this policy protects your possessions and any parts of the apartment that you own, such as new kitchen cabinets you install, against all 16 disasters.
If you own a co-op or a condo
H0-6: condo/co-op
A policy for those who own a condo or co-op, it provides coverage for your belongings and the structural parts of the building that you own. It protects you against all 16 disasters.
Your level of coverage
Regardless of whether you are an owner or renter, you have the following three options:
Actual cash value.
This type of policy pays to replace your home or possessions minus a deduction for depreciation.
Replacement cost.
The policy pays the cost of rebuilding/repairing your home or replacing your possessions without a deduction for depreciation.
Guaranteed or extended replacement cost.
This policy offers the highest level of protection. A guaranteed replacement cost policy pays whatever it costs to rebuild your home as it was before the fire or other disastereven if it exceeds the policy limit. This gives you protection against sudden increases in construction costs due to a shortage of building materials after a widespread disaster or other unexpected situations. It generally won't cover the cost of upgrading the house to comply with current building codes. You can, however, get an endorsement (or an addition to) your policy called Ordinance or Law to help pay for these additional costs. A guaranteed replacement cost policy may not be available if you own an older home.
Some insurance companies offer an extended, rather than a guaranteed replacement cost policy. An extended policy pays a certain percentage over the limit to rebuild your home. Generally, it is 20 to 25 percent more than the limit of the policy. For example, if you took out a policy for $100,000, you could get up to an extra $20,000 or $25,000 of coverage.
Even though a guaranteed/extended replacement cost policy may be a bit more expensive, it offers the best financial protection against disasters for your home. These coverages, however, may not be available in all states or from all companies.
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You can buy insurance through your local insurance agent and through insurance companies that sell through their own employees, over the phone, by mail and over the Internet. Consult your state insurance department, the yellow pages of your phone book, and friends or relatives for the names of insurance companies doing business in your state.
In most states, there are dozens, sometimes hundreds of companies to choose from, depending on the type of insurance you're looking for. You can go to our Find an Insurance Company tool for help
There are many factors an insurance company uses to determine the price of your policy:
The square footage of the house and any additional structures.
Building costs in your area.
Your home's construction, materials and features.
Amount of crime in your neighborhood.
The likelihood of damage from natural disasters, such as hurricanes and hail storms.
The proximity of your home to a fire hydrant (or other source of water) and to a fire station, whether your community has a professional or volunteer fire service and other factors that can affect the time it takes to put out fires.
The condition of the plumbing, heating and electrical system.
If you rent your home or own a condo or co-op, your insurer will not consider the size of the dwelling or building costs. However, the insurance company will take into account factors that make damage to your possessions more likely.
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