HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE
Help Protect Your Investment
Homeowners insurance is probably one of the most commonly purchased insurance today. It also is one of the most important to get right. Often, a house is the most expensive asset one owns, so get the coverage wrong and you can be out tens of thousands of dollars.
Brandon Insurance prides itself on successfully helping customers to get the level of coverage they need as well as helping them navigate the claim if a loss does occur. This pride has helped us successfully become the oldest insurance agency in Brandon for the last 55 years.
Understanding your Coverage
Below are the some coverages to make sure you understand when purchasing your home insurance.
Dwelling Coverage – the coverage that makes the most impact on your premium. It can cover the cost to rebuild the structure, including labor costs.
Other Structures Coverage – This can cover detached structures on your property such as detached garage, guest house, fence etc.
Personal Property Coverage – This can cover your personal contents such as clothes, appliances, electronics etc.
Liability Coverage – This can cover your legal liability for damage / injuries you cause to others and their property.
Cash Value vs. Replacement Cost vs. Extended Replacement Cost
These terms have to do with how the structure is valued when there is a loss. All three are very important to understand so you can protect your home. In real life, the outcome can be a difference of tens of thousands of dollars in coverage. An example will illustrate this best:
Let’s imagine that you house was burned to the ground thus suffering a total loss. With cash value coverage, your home’s depreciation will be calculated and your coverage will effectively be reduced by the total depreciation amount. So if your roof’s life expectancy of was 15 years and it was 10 years old at the time of a loss, its actual cash value would be reducing coverage by 10-year depreciation.
With replacement cost coverage, the insurance company will pay (subject to the dollar limit of coverage) what it costs to replace the home today (including the labor costs) without factoring in the depreciation.
Extended Replacement Cost, will cover increased costs to rebuild your home for up to 20% over your policy’s limit. This can help protect you against an instance of sudden rise in the cost of materials and labor costs.