Home Owners Insurance Policies: Reading Your Home Insurance Policy

Property protection is one part of home insurance policy that deals mostly with physical and external items. This section bundled together with the declarations page, is most often written on the first page of a homeowners insurance policy that is subdivided into four different sections:

Dwelling

Dwelling usually deals with all fixtures. It mostly covers the entire house, all structures attached, and built-in fixtures inside the house, which include home appliances, permanently fixed air conditioning systems, plumbing and heating, and electrical wirings.

Private Property/Properties

Private property refers to all personal properties owned by a person. Personal property includes the entire house and all other personal items owned by the person or by his family members. This part of the protection is based on actual value of cash or its replacement fee.

Most home insurance policies however, do not include motorized vehicle as part of the coverage, which also includes boats, private jets, and so on.

Aside from excluding motorized vehicles, some personal items also share limited coverage, which includes jewelry, cash, art works, and business property. Added endorsements, however, can help increase this coverage limit, which would require separate and additional payment to the policy.

Detached Structures

Detached structures include properties like built-in fixtures, storage sheds, and home garages that are often installed in a person's land property including sidewalks, patios, driveways, and fences.

Take note, however, that this part of the home insurance policy is applicable to personal properties ONLY, and does not include detached structures that are intended for business purposes.

Property in Use

Most insurance companies also cover insurance for living expenses beyond a person's living capability. A good scenario of this is when a person can no longer tolerate the inconvenience of living in his home while his house is undergoing hefty repairs.

In cases like these, the insurance company offers its client a temporary shelter to move in while access to his home is denied.

Extra Coverage of Properties

Though not always present in all insurance companies, some insurance policies also include insurance coverage of certain services such as debris removal along with damaged shrubs and trees, property removal, pest extermination, theft, transfer and illegal use of credit card, departmental service charges, and breakage of glass.

Aside from the basic coverage mentioned above, additional coverage policies can also be chosen to improve the limits of the insurance policy. Of course, opting for one requires an additional cost. Examples of these additional endorsements include:

Guard Against Inflation

This additional policy helps improve a person's house by keeping up with the economy's inflation. This way a person can maintain coverage sufficiently should a replacement is needed due to unprecedented event.

Scheduled Private Property

Scheduled Private Property is an additional policy, which specifically protects articles such as stamps, firearms, expensive collections, jewelry, and other articles that are not often covered by standard or normal policies.

This added policy often offers a much broader and wider coverage limit in personal insurance policy.