Having homeowners insurance on your property is essential to your own security. After all, it helps you both maintain your property and protect your finances in case of hazardous accidents.
However, in order to perform optimally, your policy must be tailored to your property, specifically. You must choose coverage options that will address the risk factors that are most likely to occur in your home. This can change from one property to the next. And, periodically, you will have to update your existing coverage to ensure you are still receiving optimized benefits.
Here are a few things to remember when reviewing your homeowners insurance this year.
Does the Policy Cover Home Updates?
When you build a new addition to your home, renovate a portion of the home, or even install new features like new doors and windows, you add value to the home. You also can chance the safety risks and other liabilities associated with the home. Therefore, your current limits within your property and liability insurance might not be adequate for you.
Have you Bought New Possessions?
Your homeowners insurance will include contents coverage designed to insure your personal belongings. However, if you have bought a lot of new or high-value possessions, then you might need to buy increased coverage. This is particularly important if you plan to insure unique or valuable items, such as collectibles or art. These items might need to be scheduled on your plan for their specific values.
Are There Exclusions on the Policy?
Home insurance policies won’t cover every instance of property damage. Indeed, they will often specifically exclude certain hazards from coverage, namely floods or normal wear & tear. In the former case, floods must be covered with separate flood insurance. In the latter case, normal wear & tear will not fall under most policies’ definitions of covering unexpected or unavoidable accidents.
Do You Have Enough Liability Insurance?
If something happens to a third party that is your fault—for example, if a neighbor falls in your home and gets hurt —then you might have a legal responsibility to repay them. Under the circumstances, liability insurance is the component of your homeowners policy that will help you do so.
Your liability insurance policy will need to minimize your personal financial loss from any liability lawsuit, which can often lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs as you work to settle the charges. Therefore, it’s often recommended that you carry as much liability insurance as reflected by your net worth. Additionally, if you live in a home where you know there are significant liability risks present, then having additional liability insurance can be of merit.
The best thing to do to ensure you have appropriate amounts of homeowners insurance, just contact your agent. We’ll help you determine where your policy leaves room for improvement, and guide you through the process of making the appropriate changes.