How Much Insurance do I need on my house – You never can tell what might happen to your beautiful home, its contents, or other housing properties you own; risks and damages are bound to occur. It might be quite difficult for you to handle the costs of such risk and damages to your home.
This is definitely why you need a house insurance, you can have a home and not insure it, but this is totally an unwise decision; however, if you are living in a house on loans, the lender will definitely demand some kind of house insurance, which means you just have to insure your home.
Whether you are renting a house, or you own it, or you are living in a mortgaged house, insuring your home and choosing the right insurance products gives you some kind of peace of mind. You are rest assured that whatever happens to your home, be it natural disaster or theft, you are definitely covered, and you will not lose your home.
Homes are very essential, and not having them insured means taking them for granted, so if you truly love the idea of having a home, you should endeavor to insure it. You can choose to insure your home and its contents just to protect them against risks and damages.
Types of House Insurance Policies
These are some common types of household insurances, and they include:
- Home insurance covers financial losses that occur as a result of damages or loss of a home you own.
- Content insurance: this type of house insurance covers financial losses that take place as a result of damages or loss of possessions in your home.
- Home and Contents: this form of house insurance covers both your home and contents; it combines both insurance types.
- Tenants insurance: if you live in a rented house, you need to go for this type of insurance. It covers losses that occur as a result of fire and theft.
- Landlord’s insurance: Giving out your property for rent comes with its own risks; there are specific types of house insurance that cover such risks.
- Strata insurance covers financial losses associated with damages or loss to a property that operates under a strata title or company title.
Factors That Can Affect Home Insurance Premium
Home insurance is the kind of insurance that covers damages and losses that may affect the home you own, and it also covers legal liability.
Most home insurance covers just your main building, garage, and some other outbuildings; however, there are still other coverage for various types of risks and damages that may occur to your home. It’s important you know your home risks and its insurance needs when choosing the kind of home insurance coverage you need for your home.
Well, you just get to pay these insurance companies’ premiums to cover the specific type of insurance needs for your home, but then you need to know what really affects how much premium you pay these insurance companies.
- Features and characteristics of your home are important factors that determine your home insurance premium. The age of your home, roofing, type of structure can affect your home insurance premium. Your home insurance cost can also be affected by the kind of house you have, whether brick, frame, stone, or synthetic. And most times, older homes cost more to insure.
- The location of your home: when your house is located in areas where it is prone to damages or risks, its insurance premium will be higher. If it is located in a theft-prone area, an area known for a natural disaster, or close to a fire station, this will definitely increase the home insurance premium.
- Protective devices: When you have installed protective devices to keep your home safe from certain risks or damages, your home insurance premium will be lower. Protective devices like burglar alarm system, deadbolts lock, sprinkler, fire and smoke detectors, these can help lower your home insurance premium.
- Personal factors: As the home owner, your personal habits or other things you do can affect your insurance premium. For instance, smokers are likely to pay higher insurance premiums than non-smokers. Also, having a good credit score helps reduce your insurance premiums.
- Claim history: When you have a claim history on a homeowners insurance policy, you may have to pay higher premiums.
House Insurance what does it cover?
Keeping your insurance active is important to avoid losing your home to damages or finding it hard to handle expenses required to repair your home.
Apart from the fact that most lenders require home insurance for mortgaged homes, it is still reasonably necessary to insure your home.
Your home insurance covers a whole lot concerning your home entirely and its contents. Common home insurance schemes provide coverage for fire, windstorm, fire, and lighting strikes, but often, natural disasters like floods and earthquakes are often neglected to buy a separate insurance for this. Your home insurance may cover the following:
- Your dwelling protection which helps to cover your home structure and other structures attached to it against damages. You can also decide to provide insurance for other structures on your property which are not attached to your home.
- It also covers for things like your home belongings, so when such things are stolen or damaged, it can be taken care of by the insurance policy. If your furniture is damaged by fire or stolen, a personal property protection scheme will help pay for such damages or risks. You can even extend coverage to other items in your home like jewelry, watches, and other valuable objects you wish to insure in your home.
- Home insurance policy can also cover for liability protection; this can take effect when a visitor has a home accident in your home. This will take care of any legal suits resulting from such injuries or any medical bills required to take care of such visitors. If you are found to be at fault, you will have to handle the medical expenses, so you are quite covered once you have this insurance policy.
You need to know your coverage limits and deductibles to enable you to know the maximum amount your policy will pay towards a covered loss.
You need to adjust your coverage limits depending on your home’s value, belongings, and what it will take to cover for their expenses in case of risks or damages.
Your home is a very important aspect of your life; losing it means losing a lot, so you need to insure against future risks or damages.
You need to know your home risks and know the kind of insurance products you need for your home.