Homeowners Insurance

Homeowner's insurance is a necessity if you own your own home. This is true not just because it is the wise thing to do financially, but because your mortgage company will require it in order to protect their investment. Here are the basics of how homeowner's insurance works. Let’s say you own a home, and some unfortunate event happens such as a fire. When you notify the insurance company, they will send out a claims adjuster to determine the extent of the damage. Then the company will pay you the money to have the repairs done to the house. If you did not have that homeowner's insurance coverage, you would get nothing – and home repairs can sometimes be quite costly.

The basic coverage of this type of policy is to pay for the costs of repairing your home (or rebuilding it if the damage is too extensive) in the event of a catastrophe. This means fire, a tree falling on it, water damage from a broken pipe, an explosion, or damage from high winds such as a hurricane or tornado (this is not a complete list, but these are the most common disasters). Most policies will also include coverage for separate buildings, such as a detached garage, without having to purchase a separate policy.

You may notice that the above list did not include natural flooding. If you live in a low-lying area that is classified as likely to flood, you will need to purchase a separate flood policy to cover any damage that may result from flooding. Here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, we do have some areas that are prone to flooding. If you are not sure about the area where your house is located, give us a call and we can let you know about that.

Homeowner's insurance usually covers more than just the structure of your home. It also includes some of the personal property that is inside your home (whether it belongs to you or someone else that lives there). Keep in mind, there are some limitations to this. If your home is destroyed, and you make a claim for the value of the home plus an original DaVinci painting that was valued at $10 million, your standard homeowner's insurance will not cover that. If you do have some items of high value stored in your home, please let us know. We can advise you how to document their presence and determine the value, and we can also help you get the extra coverage that would be required to protect against losing those items.

There is another big section in the homeowner's insurance policy. This has to do with coverage for liability. The Liability section is typically broken down into two different sections:

• Personal Liability: this is what protects you from being wiped out financially if someone sues you as a result of being injured while on your property. The coverage applies to you, and any family members that also live in your house. This does not include accidents that are business-related (if you are running a business from your home, you need business insurance).
  
• Medical Payments: if someone is accidentally injured on your property, this coverage pays their medical expenses (regardless of who was at fault for the accident). Don’t mistake this for a health insurance policy for yourself or your family; this coverage only pays the expenses of someone on the property that does not normally live there.

Keep in mind that all homeowner's insurance policies are unique, so it is definitely not a “one size fits all”. We can help you determine the coverage that you need based on your situation and your budget.

We provide homeowners insurance in Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Port Charlotte, Parrish, Punta Gorda and North Port, FL.