A Few FAQs about Homeowners Insurance

We recommend having a homeowner’s insurance policy to help you with any expenses if disaster strikes, that way you are not paying for your disaster cleanup alone and out of pocket.

What is a homeowner’s insurance policy?

When a home is damaged by an accident or a natural disaster, it is usually very expensive to repair. Homeowners Insurance protects you from paying those costs from out of your own pocket. Your “premium,” a.k.a. your annual, bi-annual, or monthly payment (the payment frequency is dependent on your policy), is the fee your insurance company charges you, and in return, the insurance company agrees to pay a much larger sum when your home suffers damage to cover your expenses.

What does homeowners insurance cover?

Homeowners insurance includes coverage for six main categories:

• Your Dwelling (the framework of your house),
• Other structures like garages, fences, or guest houses,
• Personal property that is within your home,
• Liability costs
• Medical bills if someone is injured on your property,
• And the loss of use coverage to help cover living expenses while your home is being fixed.

How exactly does homeowners insurance work?

Homeowners insurance pays out on damages caused by something specifically covered under your policy. Within each of the six categories listed above are certain coverages and exclusions; for example, “water damage” is generally covered under dwelling insurance if it’s caused by a burst pipe, but not if it’s caused by flooding.

What does homeowners insurance not cover?

The two big areas not covered by homeowners’ insurance are flooding and earth movement (which includes earthquakes, landslides, mudflows, and so on). A few private companies sell insurance for these perils, but most homeowners end up getting coverage through federal insurance programs. Other perils not covered by standard home insurance include things like damage from regular wear and tear, fungi or mold, pests, sewer backup, power failure, and “ordinance or law” requiring renovations to meet new codes. Please note that this list is not exhaustive. Exclusions vary by company and by policy type.

How expensive is Homeowners Insurance?

There are two ways to calculate homeowners’ insurance limits. Your home can either be insured for its actual cash value (ACV), meaning the market value with depreciation subtracted or replacement cost, meaning the amount that it would actually cost to rebuild your home if it were leveled by a catastrophe.

Ensure your home for its replacement cost. That way, if a covered disaster strikes, your insurance company will pay for repairs or replacement in full.

When We Come In

In 2017, six percent of insured homes across the U.S. filed a claim with their insurance company. Property Damage accounted for 98.1 percent of those claims. Breaking down that number (98.1%) further, 35.1% of those property damage incidents were by Fire and Lightening, and 19.5% were by Water damage and freezing (source https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-homeowners-and-renters-insurance)

Disaster is always lurking around the corner waiting to strike. We specialize in property restoration.

If disaster strikes your home, (and never believe you’re the exception) and you find that you have water damage or fire damage, call us. We will help you remove mold, carpet cleaning, or restore your property.