When you own a home, you may have extenuating circumstances and/or own property that your insurance might not cover.
In fact, there may be risks in your home that you never thought of and that won’t be covered by your homeowner’s policy if you have to file a claim. Fortunately, there are a number of extra coverage options you can add to your policy.
Here are five of these endorsements that you should be aware of, as recommended by the insurance trade publication National Underwriter.
Additional Insured Residence Premises
This endorsement is specifically for people who have an ownership interest in a property but don’t live there.
This could come in handy for you if you are helping your adult children out when buying a home and you want to protect your part of the investment should the house be damaged or destroyed in a calamity.
Other Members of Your Household
While you may own a house and live with a boyfriend or girlfriend and consider them a member of the household, the insurance company would not consider them insured and their personal property would not be covered in case of damage or theft in a covered event.
This endorsement would cover their property. Anyone whose property would be covered has to be explicitly named in the policy.
An “other member of your household” cannot be a guest, household employee, tenant or boarder.
Other Structures Increased Limits
Maybe you’ve built a new man cave — a small cottage in the back yard outfitted with a giant plasma TV, nice sound system and bar.
However, since it’s a detached structure, your homeowner’s policy may not likely cover the entirety of the loss, should it burn down or suffer some other damage or theft.
Under the typical homeowner’s policy, other structures are covered at 10% of the policy limits. So, if your home is insured for $400,000, your other structures would be insured for 10% of that — $40,000.
This endorsement will provide additional coverage for sheds, your man cave, grandmother’s cottage, gazebos, patios, barbeque pits, play equipment and other items in your backyard.
If you have a number of items that could be subject considered “other structures,” this is a good policy for you.
Mechanical Breakdown
This endorsement covers the mechanical failure of household appliances like: central air conditioning, central vacuums, chairlifts and elevators, electric vehicle charging stations, heating systems, including water heaters, home automation and security systems, saunas, hot tubs, therapeutic baths, swimming pool pumps and filtration systems, stoves, wall ovens, refrigerators, well-water pumps, and sump pumps.
The specific systems and equipment covered by equipment breakdown will vary by provider.
Limited Water Back-up, Sump Pump Overflow
While your policy will cover damage from a sump pump back-up, discharge or overflow, it won’t cover the cost of a sump pump that breaks down. This endorsement will cover that.
Article Source: https://www.insurancenewsletters.com/