So you’ve found yourself a homeowner? First up, congratulations! That’s a big deal—an indication of hard work and wise financial spending, often the result of several years of concentrated effort. Of course, the hard work doesn’t end when you become a homeowner. There’s still a lot of things you need to get organized and situated if you’re going to enjoy your home. One of the things that may be confusing is Homeowners Insurance.
What Is Homeowners Insurance?
In the broadest sense, insurance is a form of protection. It ensures that if certain things go wrong, you will be given the money you need to deal with the trouble that arises. Homeowners insurance is sometimes also referred to as property insurance or casualty insurance and can include car insurance, business insurance, and disaster insurance.
What Is Homeowners Insurance For?
When it comes to homeowner’s insurance, this can protect you in the event of damage to your home from fire, lightning strikes, or strong winds. It also protects you in the event of theft of your possessions, damage or injury to people who visit your home or property, and any accidental damage you cause to someone else’s property while you’re visiting.
In most situations, a basic homeowner’s insurance package is required by law. Because of this, insurance providers can sometimes get away with charging a little more than would be ideal. Experts at MyChoice.ca encourage you to search and compare the price of a variety of policy plans from different insurance providers to make sure you’re getting the best rates. There are even sites now designed to make these comparisons easier for you.
What Does Basic Homeowners Insurance Cover?
The most basic homeowners’ insurance packages provide the least amount of coverage but are also usually the least expensive insurance to purchase. Typically, this means that unexpected events will be covered. Things like accidents, fires, windstorms, or theft that could not be known ahead of time and cause damage with a financial repercussion for the homeowner.
It is important to note that not all forms of unexpected events are covered by all policies. For example, you might live in an area with next to no earthquakes. If this is the case, earthquakes might not be covered and on the off-chance you experience one any damage your home or possessions incur will need to be paid for out of pocket.
What About Predictable Events?
Almost always, predictable events are not covered by insurance policies. These types of damages tend to be related to the maintenance of your home. For example, if you leave your home uncared for in the dead of winter for several days and your pipes freeze, most insurance policies would not cover this. This is because it is reasonable that you could have predicted the event happening and made appropriate preparations to ensure the event did not occur.
The Two Types Of Basic Coverage
There are two types of basic coverage: comprehensive and standard. Comprehensive coverage covers all risks to your property and home except for anything explicitly listed in your policy as an exclusion. Let’s say for example that you have an old, antique barn on your property with a collapsing roof built in the pioneer era. This might be an exception in your policy, as in, you won’t be given any money if that roof comes down in a windstorm because it’s pretty likely to come down even without the wind.
Standard coverage provides less coverage than a comprehensive policy. This type of coverage will have a list of items that are covered and the things that could happen to them. It might, for example, cover your house, and the things inside it, but not what is stored in your driveway. This could mean that if a windstorm brings a tree down on your car, it isn’t covered.
No-Frills Insurance
Sometimes homes don’t meet the usual standards for insurance and so are given an even more relaxed no-frills policy. In instances where the foundation of the home is known to be weaker than standard or the roof is not up to code, but you were aware of this when you bought the property and will be doing something about it. If this is the situation you’re in, you will need to speak to your insurance provider and read your policy in-depth to get a better understanding of what is covered.
The above information should be enough to get you started in your homeowners’ insurance search. As with any legal document and insurance policy it is important to read the entire policy before signing it. It might seem a little bit dry, but take the time to read any policy you are considering in full and think about the situations that are and are not covered. Ask the people in your area about storms, flooding, and other issues and see to it that your policy covers the stronger possibilities in your area.
