What Is Covered Under Homeowner's Insurance?
Homeowners Insurance: What Does It Cover?
If you’re buying a home in the United States, one thing you can’t go without is homeowners insurance. Homeowners insurance protects you from a variety of risks -- and can help reimburse you if your home is destroyed. Despite the benefits of homeowner’s insurance, it doesn’t cover everything. If you want to make sure you’re financially protected, you should know exactly what your homeowner's insurance does and doesn’t cover.
What Homeowners Insurance Doesn't Cover
In most situations, homeowners insurance policies do not cover events or situations including:
Floods
Earthquakes
Mold
Sinkholes
Sewer Backup
Termites
Stolen/destroyed cash or currency
Theft/destruction of expensive valuables (i.e. jewelry or fine art)
Dog attacks
Pool accidents
Trampoline accidents
Nuclear explosions
War
Identity theft
What Homeowners Insurance Usually Covers
Now that you know what most homeowners insurance policies don’t cover, let’s review the things that they do cover, which typically include:
Fire
Vandalism
Windstorms
Hailstorms
Tornados
Wind damage
Lightning strikes
Terrorism
How to Get Additional Homeowners Insurance Coverage
If you’ve realized that your homeowner's insurance policy isn’t covering everything you want it to, there are few things you can do. The most common way to remedy the situation is to purchase a rider, also referred to as an endorsement, which can extend your policy coverage. One of the most common endorsements covers expensive property within your home, such as jewelry, fine art, antiques, or oriental rugs. Some highly specialized policies can even protect you against minor damage or misplacement of these items.
If you happen to own an expensive home with a lot of expensive property, another option is to get high-value home insurance. Often, these policies are issued by specialized companies, and, while they may cost a lot more than typical homeowners insurance policies, they could save you a lot of hassle if you have a lot of pricey things to insure.
In addition, if you live in an area prone to hurricanes or earthquakes, you can purchase specific insurance policies to cover these risks, though they might also be somewhat expensive -- and, in some cases, you might already be partially covered. For example, if a home experienced wind damage in a hurricane, that would be covered by the owner’s regular homeowners policy. But, if the home also experienced flood damage, that part wouldn’t be covered -- and would only be covered if the owner had purchased a separate hurricane insurance policy.