Sunday, September 1, 2013

Choosing Comprehensive Home Insurance Makes Sense

By Clea Spahn


Today, most homeowners insurance is comprehensive, covering property, belongings, liability and living expenses in one policy. Savvy insurance buyers need to make sure they have the right coverage in each category.

Comprehensive, or "all perils" insurance covers you for all conceivable disaster except a list of excluded items-typically earthquakes and floods-along with natural wear and tear, mechanical breakdown, settling, and deterioration.

Most comprehensive home insurance policies include contents insurance, which covers the cost of replacing your belongings, up to a set amount. Before you purchase comprehensive insurance, there are exclusions listed in the policy, have a good look at those. In most cases, the exclusions can be added to the policy for an extra charge, in what is called a rider.

There's a decent chance that if you have a comprehensive home insurance policy, your gadgets will already be covered. There's a few things to check here, though. You need to look at what you are protected from, house fires and theft are the only things on many insurance policies.

When a homeowner chooses a guaranteed-replacement policy, even if the costs to replace the home is more than the maximum policy amount, the home will be replaced. Restoring an older home to it's former state is not always possible, so those with houses like this can not always get this type of insurance. There are several kinds of home insurance, but guaranteed-replacement policies are the most expensive.

If a homeowner wants protection from lawsuits that can occur when a person is injured on their property, comprehensive personal liability insurance can provide this so that a fall or other kind of injury doesn't end up costing a homeowner an expensive lawsuit. The injured person has their lost wages and medical bills covered, they have rehabilitation, and if a settlement is awarded, that will be covered by the liability insurance.

A comprehensive policy will also include coverage for living expenses for you and your family if damage or loss forces you from your home. While your home is being repaired, you could find yourself in a rental suite or a hotel room for a while. This kind of coverage does have it's limits.

Remember, most catastrophes are covered; for example, wind damage from hurricanes and tornadoes come under the windstorm peril listed in the previous question and so are included. Flood and earthquake damage, however, are not covered by a standard policy. If there are more than two or three claims made by a homeowner, the insurance company could cancel the policy or raise their rates later because of it. A higher deductible means lower premiums, so this is a wise way to go, so that you don't bother making smaller insurance claims, and your policy will remain active with the lowest possible premium rates.




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