Additional Home Insurance Coverage Homeowners Should Consider

Insurance Blog

Your home is a place of sanctuary for you and your family. Getting the right home insurance not only protects the financial investment you've made in your home, but it also helps you restore damage quickly when covered events occur. However, there are some things a standard home insurance policy doesn't cover.

You will need additional home insurance coverage—often in the form of rider policies that allow you to customize your home insurance to meet your needs. These are a few riders you might want to consider when purchasing your home insurance.

Flood Insurance

This is very rarely covered by your standard home insurance policy. You will need an additional policy to protect your home against floods. Even though most policies do not cover flood damage, many mortgage lenders do require you to purchase flood insurance sufficient to cover their investment in your home.

Depending on the value of your home and personal property, you may consider investing in private flood insurance rather than getting flood protection through the National Flood Insurance Program which restricts coverage to no more than $250,000 for your home and $100,000 for your personal property.

Building Code Coverage

In some municipalities, there are local building codes in place that require you to bring your entire home up to current codes if a certain percentage of the home is damaged. That means all the wiring, plumbing, insulation, etc. may have to be improved, even in parts of the home that were not damaged by the covered event.

Your home insurance will pay to update the damaged areas to the current building code. However, you are responsible for the costs of the remaining upgrades unless you have building code coverage.

How much building code coverage do you need? That will vary according to a few criteria, such as:

  • Age of the home.
  • Length of time between last upgrades to the home.
  • Local building codes.
  • Personal comfort levels with risk.

Working with a trusted insurance agent can help you determine the right amount of protection for your peace of mind and the area in which you live.

Valuable Item Riders

You may need additional riders for all valuable items you own that exceed the value your home insurance provides for those items. Different types of items you own that may require riders include jewelry, antiques, furs, art, electronics, and expensive home décor. 

The idea is that items that you can protect these items for an agreed-upon value outside of your home insurance coverage limits.

If you have questions or concerns about your home insurance, auto insurance, or other types of insurance coverage, make sure to contact a trusted insurance agent to get the answers you need.

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