Times When You’ll Feel Glad You Have Homeowner’s Insurance

Many individuals rent a house or apartment. They can get renters insurance. However, many of them elect not to do so, because they do not feel it is a true necessity. Some of them can’t afford it as well.

However, a time might come when you will buy a home. When that happens, you need to get homeowner’s insurance. If you try to get along without it, and then someone hurts themselves while they are in your home, they can potentially sue you. 

Different states have different rules that they follow regarding injuries that take place while in someone’s home. For instance, New York uses fault percentage to determine compensation. That means if they feel that someone who visited your home caused an injury to some extent, but you also share the blame, then your insurance will have to cover part of the cost. 

No matter how your state views injuries in the home, though, you might face financial disaster if you roll the dice and try to live without this kind of insurance. Let’s look at some situations where you will doubtless feel glad you bought such a policy.

Slip-and-Fall Situations

Maybe you got some snow recently, and there are several inches on your front steps. Perhaps you have some ice on there as well, and it is quite slippery. 

You work from home, so you’re busy on the morning after the snowstorm. You know that you should get out there and clear the snow from the steps. Maybe you have a bag of salt standing by as well. However, you’re busy, so you feel like you’ll get to it that afternoon.

A UPS or Amazon delivery person has a package for you, and they try to negotiate the snow-covered steps. They slip, though, and they fall off the steps and twist their ankle. They’re injured, and they can’t get back to work for several weeks afterward.

In such a situation, the delivery driver could sue you. They might allege negligence on your part. If they get a lawyer and take you to court, they may say that you should have cleared the steps before they got there, especially if you knew that you had a package coming that day.

In this scenario, your homeowner’s insurance might be able to step in and save you financially. The policy should cover such an incident, and you probably won’t have to pay anything out of pocket. You will presumably learn an important lesson from this incident and know to clear off the steps next time before you do anything else after a storm.

A Storm or Some Other Natural Disaster Damages Your Home

You might also call upon your insurance policy to help you if your home sustains massive damage in a storm. Maybe it’s a rainstorm or a snowstorm that caves in part of your roof. A contractor might look at it and say that you need a total tear off and a completely new roof.

You might have to go and stay at a hotel for a week while the roofing company repairs the damage. Your insurance can probably pay for that. You won’t have to pay anything out of pocket for the new roof, either, assuming you had a robust policy.

Damage to Your Furniture and Other Belongings

Maybe you accidentally cause a fire. It could start in the kitchen when you’re cooking and spread to other parts of the house. Perhaps you have an electrical short that starts a fire while you’re sleeping, and you barely escape with the rest of your family.

In such a situation, you can call upon your insurance policy to pay for the fire damage and to replace your furniture as well. You might need to replace a whole living room set, your bed, desk, dresser, etc.

That’s why you should take pictures of all of your belongings when you get the insurance policy. Doing so means you can more easily assess each piece’s worth and prove that you had it. While these policies often cover much of what you own that a fire damaged, if you can prove what you had, the process of getting you the money or replacement pieces should go a lot easier. 

What Else Should You Know About These Kinds of Policies?

While the right homeowner’s insurance policy can cover much of what we’ve discussed, you need to make sure you get the right kind and that you pay attention to all the fine print. Every policy looks a little different, and you shouldn’t sign up for one without making sure you understand all of the details.

You might get a policy that does not include certain natural disasters. These might include mudslides, floods, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions. Many of these things won’t happen around your home, but some of them might if you’re in the right part of the country.

Some policies won’t cover mold damage. Others won’t cover property damage if a war breaks out. Some won’t cover items that you damage through neglect or intentional loss, meaning items that you damage purposefully and then try to file a claim to receive compensation.

Each coverage policy will have many clauses that you must study. If you don’t understand any of them, talk to the company that issued the policy, or you can also speak to a qualified insurance broker. 

Such a person can usually explain some of the legalese that goes into the writing of these policies. Sometimes, companies will intentionally write certain sections in a vague or misleading way. Insurance companies have for-profit status, so they don’t like paying claims if they can avoid it.    

Though you might find paying for such a policy a pain, especially on top of rent or a mortgage payment, you will certainly feel glad you have it in some of the situations we’ve mentioned. These policies can become financial lifesavers at a time when you’re facing an unexpected crisis.

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