Types of Home Insurance To Cover Natural Disasters Required by Mortgage Lenders
Everyone wishes to buy a home that is of great location and property prices have skyrocketed in the past 5 years. This means that many owners are looking to protect their properties and this give rise to issue. Home insurance is often required by a lending company that carries your mortgage. If you have paid for your home and are not required to have insurance, it may be a good idea to stay on that policy in the event of a disaster. Many areas of the country have their own special weather hazards. The weather is not predictable, and the damage it can cause is also not predictable. Don’t risk your home by leaving it uninsured; make sure you protect yourself and your home.
There are many types of home insurance, and these policies and coverage types will vary by the company, and sometimes by the situation. For example, flood insurance may be difficult to get if you live in a flood plain. However, the basic types of insurance for the home include, lightening, flood, hail, smoke, theft, vandalism, fire, and even civil unrest (riot) or volcanic eruption. Depending upon your financial needs and the area that you live in, you need to decide which kind of insurance offers you the best protection against any real threats, and get the best coverage that you can afford.
Natural Disasters could destroy homes. This means that you are completely at the mercy of your home insurance, as many people simply do not have the money to rebuild from scratch. If you have no insurance, then you will be left trying to get a form of assistance from a disaster agency, and will have no assets left to you. Insurance is there to protect you against possibilities that cannot be avoided.
When you are looking for a good home insurance company, make sure you already have a general idea of which kind of insurance you may need. Find as much literature about the subject as you can, in order to avoid pitfalls. Talk to an agent from several different companies, and compare their costs and their practices. If possible, discreetly talk to clients of the insurance companies, in order to get a complete picture of what you can expect. Get quotes to compare, and remember to always read the fine print of any agreement. Make sure you understand completely before you sign any document.
If you own a home, your mortgage insurance lender will require you to carry home insurance. The reason for this is that the insurance protects the lender from a major financial loss if the home is damaged for any reason. They have loaned you quite a bit of money to purchase the home, and want to make sure that they get what is owed them no matter what happens.
For the homeowner, having home insurance is also very important. There are three major risks that this type of insurance will cover: loss or damage to the home and any outlying structures such as a garage or a shed, loss or damage to your personal items that are within the home, and personal injury to people other than your family that happens on your property.
First, consider the possibility of total loss or some sort of damage to your home. One of the things that can damage your home is the wind. When a major windstorm occurs, you may lose a few shingles or you may lose most of your roof or even the siding on your house as well as your fence. Because damage can be small or large, your insurance company protects itself by requiring you to pay a deductible. This means that for each claim that you make to the insurance company, you must pay the deductible first. If your deductible is $500, and the cost to repair the shingles on your roof is only $300, it is not worth it to you to make a claim.
As for items of personal property, most policies have certain limits on the amount they are willing to pay out for personal property. If you have specialty items, such as antiques or expensive jewelry, you may want to get special home insurance riders on them to cover them for specific amounts. In the above example of water damage, if your home computer were near the wall where the pipe burst and was damaged because of the water, the personal property part of your home insurance policy would kick in and cover the replacement or repair of your home computer.
Personal injury is the third component to most home insurance policies. If a person comes to your home and slips on some ice on your front sidewalk and breaks a leg, your home insurance policy should cover the medical expenses incurred by that individual from that injury. If you or your family is injured in your home, however, your medical expenses will need to be covered by your medical insurance plan rather than your homeowner’s policy.
When you are looking for a good home insurance policy, you may find companies that offer a newer home discount, for homes that are a specified age. They may also offer a claim-free discount for homeowners who have never filed a claim, or it may be a discount that you can receive after going a certain period of time without making a claim. Some companies may offer a discount based on the type of security system you have, and others may provide a discount if you purchase your automobile insurance policies through them as well as your homeowner’s policy.
When you are comparing the different insurance companies, you may appreciate such services as a 24 hour a day claim hotline, a repair guarantee, or flexible billing options. Some companies will bill your mortgage company for your insurance premium so that you simply pay a little more each month along with your mortgage and the mortgage company pays the insurance each year when it is due.