Homeowners’ Insurance

Homeowners insurance protects both your personal property and your house itself. For those renting properties from homeowners, this type of insurance may protect tenant property. Commonly, homeowners insurance covers a wide range of hazardous circumstances that cause substantial damage to your home and possessions. A new home should have good coverage for what the given residence is at risk for, such as fires or theft. Unfortunately, standard home insurance policies don’t commonly cover damage caused by floods or hurricanes. However, insurance companies can assist in insuring a home through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Renters’ (Tenant) Insurance

Renters’ insurance policies are a collection of coverages that protects the belongings of temporary residents. Usually, renters’ insurance plans include coverage for cases when the house, apartment, or other rental property a renter is living in becomes temporarily unlivable. While preventing certain situations may be out of your control, you can cover your possessions in cases like break-ins, visitor’s damaging property, and accidental damage with renters’ insurance. Otherwise known as tenant insurance, this type of coverage comes in handy when you ultimately have to replace items that are unexpectedly damaged or destroyed beyond repair.

Landlord Insurance

Landlords’ insurance is a special insurance policy that protects a residential property owner from financial burdens that come with damaged or ruined rental homes. These plans commonly cover the building itself and can also insure any of the landlord’s properties inside the home as well. While insurance is optional, landlords should consider the likelihood of tenants causing damage accidentally or intentionally to their home, not to mention the perils of wind, fire, hail, snow, and attempted break-ins or robberies. The main differences between landlord and home insurance relates to coverage from loss of rent, rent default, and damage or property theft by tenants.

Personal Property Insurance

Typical homeowners’ policies cover both the structure of your house and its contents. However, personal property insurance differs slightly to protect possessions that are outside of your home’s structure, like appliances and items located on your porch, deck, or backyard. This type of coverage also is found in renters’ insurance. To protect against any type of damage, open peril policies cover earthquakes, floods, tree root pressure, faulty construction, insects and vermin, corrosion, mold, and more. On the other hand, named perils for personal belongings include damage caused from smoke, theft, vandalism, snow, ice, hail damage, and the like.

Dwelling Coverage (Building Insurance)

Both dwelling and homeowners insurance are intended to protect your property in different ways. Dwelling insurance, also called second home insurance, covers the building and not the property’s contents. Dwelling insurance is intended for properties that your household doesn’t think of as its primary residence Vacation homes are commonly covered with this type of insurance, in addition to rental properties. Perils that can be commonly named to these policies include broken glass, burst pipes, water damage, vandalism, and the like. Again, this type of insurance won’t cover your belongings in an unoccupied residence.

Mobile (Manufactured) Homes

Mobile homes are completely manufactured at a factory and transported to their location afterwards. They are lighter and can only be anchored to the land for stability, unlike traditional houses built on a foundation. This makes mobile houses more susceptible to the same risks as the ones site-built homes face, such as wind, fire, pipe damage, and even theft. Higher risk makes premiums for manufactured homes generally run higher than for site-built houses. On average, mobile home insurance runs between $250-$1,300 per year, while rates on plans vary between states.

Condo And Townhomes

While the two structures may look alike, condominiums and townhouses have different insurance specifications. A condo’s owner typically insures the interior, while the rest of the property is insured by the association. With a townhome, everything on the land from the home’s exterior to the interior is insured by the owner. In other words, you are responsible for insuring the contents of a condominium. With a townhome, you own and cover the land, the structure, and the contents. With either property, you are responsible for covering your possessions. Generally, both residences have insurance that covers interior walls, carpets, countertops, plumbing, and cabinets.

Vacant Homes

Unoccupied and vacant home insurance is a type of coverage for when your property is not lived in for weeks at a time. Because homeowners policies generally don’t provide coverage for damage that occurred in a timeframe in which you weren’t living in the residence, you may find yourself in need of this type of insurance to protect yourself from paying out of pocket for necessary replacements and repairs. This insurance product is available for separate policy purchase or as an endorsement to cover an uninhabited residence in case of a fire, storm, break-in, or other such peril.

The odds are that you’re already aware that home insurance plans are optional, but also that insurance plans are important investments that you hope never pay off. When it comes to protecting your home and your prized possessions, besides looking for a coverage from a cheap insurance provider, carefully read the terms of the plan to avoid paying out of pocket for damaged, destroyed, or stolen property later. There are a range of specific types of home insurance plans, including homeowners’ insurance, renters’ insurance, landlord insurance, personal property insurance, and more.

However, with so many types of plans and a number of companies and agencies claiming to offer the best coverage for the lowest costs, you can easily feel out of your depth. To help you get a high value and affordable coverage, our directory offers reviews of top rated local insurance companies so you know exactly what you’re paying for.

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