"House insurance" is an insurance policy that covers both the structure of your house and the things inside it. If something bad happens, like a flood, fire, act of vandalism, theft, etc., you, as the owner, will get everything back, including your house and its valuable contents that were damaged, as long as you follow the policy's rules. We all hope and plan to never have to file a claim, and some people never have to. Yet, if you ever need to file a claim, being ready will save you a lot of time, money, and stress. This is when you need help from your insurance company the most. Most big insurance companies now have websites, so it's easy for many people to compare prices and get a quote for homeowner's insurance on the web.
Every homeowner's insurance policy covers two basic but very important things: the property and its physical contents, as well as the homeowner's and other people's liability for injuries or property damage. If you, as a home owner, accidentally hurt or damage someone else's property, your policy will protect you from having to pay for those damages. If the insurance company decides that you were at fault, you probably won't be able to get a claim.
The main benefits of having homeowner's insurance are:
- The house insurance policy covers damage to the house caused by natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes. However, these disasters are usually not covered by a standard insurance policy. If you live in an area where natural disasters happen often, many insurance companies will offer this kind of coverage for an extra fee.
- The owner is also given money for temporary living costs if the damage to his house is so bad that he has to leave it.
- A policy can also cover things like laptops that you take with you when you leave the house.
- If damage is done to the house itself, the owner of the house insurance policy gets the amount of damage back.
- The owner is paid for his or her legal obligations.
- Your policy will cover your losses whether you are at home or not when something bad happens.
Every homeowner should do this one thing:
I hope you never have to file a claim, but if you do, here's a tip that will save you a lot of time and stress. When someone has to file a claim, they often run into one big problem. The insurance company wants to know what you owned and how much it was worth. Well, that's great if they'll just take your word for it, but most of them will want to see proof in the form of receipts. I'm sure most of you already know where I'm going with this. What do you do if you just lost the receipts in a flood or fire? Or, what if you can't find the receipt because it went missing? At this point, your word is all that matters because you have no proof of what you've already said. Both insurance companies and people who own their own homes have had a lot of trouble with this.
The ways that technology has helped:
Most people either have a video camera at home or know someone who does. If they don't, they can probably rent one from a store. In order to make filing an insurance claim easier, most home owner insurance companies will suggest that you make a video of every room in your house, including its contents, and store the video somewhere else.
If you think about it, this is a great idea. There are even companies that do this for a living and store the videos for you in a safe place. The insurance companies love this because they can now see for themselves what you're trying to claim. It's also much easier for them to figure out how much something is worth when they can see the make and model in the video.
The benefits for you, the homeowner, are also huge. This has been known to really shorten a legetamite claim and will make sure that the price you get for your items is closer to what they are really worth. The biggest benefit is that you may see a lot of things in the video that you had forgotten about, so your total claim may be a lot higher than if you just went by memory. As your content changes, it's a good idea to keep the video up-to-date.
So, to sum up, get a quote for homeowner's insurance on the Internet so you can compare companies and make sure you're not paying too much for your policy. Make a video of your home and everything in it, and if you can, keep the video somewhere else, like in another city. It doesn't take long, but it may pay off in the long run.
