It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the different types of home insurance coverage types. There are many different types of policies that protect against different types of risks to your home and possessions. While some may be very relevant to your needs, however, others may not necessarily apply to you.
Understanding the home insurance coverage types available is important for homeowners. This knowledge can help ensure you’re getting the right policy with the right protection for you, your family, and your home. At the same time, it is also assuring that you don’t pay more than you need to in order to protect your house and valuables.
This guide to the different types of home insurance coverage types can help you search for the best policy:
Type #1: Dwelling Insurance Coverage
All homeowners’ insurance policies should have dwelling coverage, which protects the structure of the home. This includes the ceilings, walls, floors, and even built-in appliances and attached structures.
With dwelling coverage, you’ll be financially protected against theft, hail and windstorms, fire, smoke, and vandalism. You’re also typically covered against explosions, lightning, damage from vehicles or aircraft, riots and civil commotion, and volcanic eruption, enabling you to rebuild the structure if needed.
However, it’s important to note that dwelling coverage does not cover everything, which is why homeowners tend to get additional coverage for further risk management and financial protection.
Type #2: Contents Insurance Coverage
As the name suggests, this home insurance coverage type protects your home’s contents. This coverage type protects your clothing, jewellery, electronics, and furniture in case an incident occurs that damages these contents. If something happens to your contents, you can receive money for the value of these types of items.
Type #3: Personal Liability Insurance Coverage
You don’t want to be on the hook financially for medical costs, legal fees, and other types of expenses if a guest gets hurt on your property. That’s why homeowners get personal liability, which covers bodily injury damage in the case of guests’ injuries and property damage coverage in case your property is damaged due to a covered accident.
Type #4: Broad Form Insurance Coverage
Broad form coverage is one of the most common types of home insurance policies. It includes dwelling coverage but covers more named perils, including falling objects, weight of ice or snow, sudden and accidental tearing of pipes, freezing of household systems, accidental discharge of or overflow of water, and sudden and accidental damage of artificially generated electrical current.
Broad form coverage usually also includes contents insurance and personal liability insurance, too.
Type #5: Special Form Insurance Coverage
This is basically the same as broad form coverage, except that you’re not only covered for named perils. You’re covered for any perils that occur unless specifically excluded in the policy.
Type #6: Medical Payments Insurance Coverage
This type of insurance can provide payment to cover a guest’s medical treatment expenses if there’s an accident on your property. It’s a good insurance policy because it tends to pay out without determining fault.
Type #7: Other Structures Insurance Coverage
If you have an unattached garage, shed, gazebo, or other type of unattached structure, consider getting this additional insurance to ensure these structures that are on your property are also financially protected, so you don’t have to pay out of pocket if something happens to them.
Type #8: Flood Insurance Coverage
If your home is at an increased risk of floods due to where you live, you should get a separate insurance policy with its own deductible for flood insurance. This will protect both your dwelling and your personal belongings from damaged related to flooding.
Type #9: Earthquake Insurance Coverage
Depending on where you live, you might want to consider earthquake insurance, which covers your home of damages that are caused by an earthquake. Like flood insurance, this is a separate policy with its own deductible.
Type #10: Replacement Cost Insurance Coverage
Need some extra protection to rebuild your home in the case of a total loss? Consider replacement cost plus coverage. This is a good option if you’ve owned your home for a long time and you’re concerned about depreciation.
Type #11: Water Backup Insurance Coverage
It’s often a wise idea to get water backup of sewer protection, since sewer and drain backups are very common, and a basic policy might not protect you as well as you think it could.
Type #12: Ordinance or Law Insurance Coverage
If you have an older home, it might be a good idea to get this type of insurance, since it kicks in if you need to rebuild your home to fit building codes after a loss.
Type #13: Condo Form Insurance Coverage
If you own a condominium rather than a house, you’ll want to look at a condo form policy, which is specifically designed for condo owners. It protects your personal belongings and includes personal liability. This type of insurance typically also includes protection for the unit’s walls, ceiling, and floors.
While not an exhaustive list, these are just some of the types of home insurance coverage types you might want to consider when insuring your home and belongings.
