What does home insurance cover?
Many people purchase home insurance but aren’t really sure what it covers.
There are four main protections provided by home insurance:
1. Dwelling coverage
2. Property coverage
3. Liability coverage
4. Additional living expense
Dwelling Coverage
This coverage pays to repair your home in case it’s damaged by a covered loss. Standard home owners policies will cover you for the types of claims that you would expect – Fire, wind, lightning, hail and more. Most policies will not cover flood, water that backs up through sewers and drains, or earthquakes. Other structures (such as sheds) are normally covered too, but for ten percent of the dwelling coverage.
It’s best to check with your agent to determine what’s covered under your home insurance policy and for how much.
Property Coverage
Your home insurance policy will also pay to protect your “stuff.” Clothes, furniture, electronics, dishes, and more. If you could pick up your house and shake it out like a doll house, the things that would fall out would most likely be covered under your property coverage limit.
These can either be covered by “named perils” or “comprehensive perils.” Named perils will be specifically listed in the policy. The majority of the time, most losses will be covered under named perils. If you want your home insurance policy to cover more kinds of losses, then be sure you purchase comprehensive peril coverage.
Our Fishers insurance agency will be happy to discuss the differences in the two types of coverage with you.
Liability Coverage
Your Indiana home insurance policy will also protect you in the event that you become legally liable for damages or injury. It will pay for the cost of lawyers to defend you and pay the amount you owe in a lawsuit that’s covered by your home insurance.
This can happen at your home or away from your home. An example would be if you’re in a hurry to get your Christmas shopping done and you rush into the store at the same time someone else is coming out. If you injure them in an accident, your home insurance can protect you.
Not all damages or injuries you cause are covered. For example, if you do something intentionally that you’re pretty sure would hurt someone, it’s probably not going to be covered.
Additional Living Expense
This coverage will pay for the extra day to day expenses that result from living away from home due to a covered loss. For example, if your home catches on fire and has to be repaired, your home insurance can cover the cost of hotels, meals, laundry, etc. that you wouldn’t be paying if your home wasn’t damaged.
Contact our Fishers Insurance Agency
If you’d like to learn more about these coverages and others that are available on your Fishers home insurance policy, please contact our Fishers insurance agency at 317-644-1770 to get a quote. We can make it easy for you to understand your insurance and work with you to give you the best available rates.