Home Insurance
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What is Covered by Home Insurance?
With a homeowners insurance policy, you may receive financial assistance if your home or its contents are destroyed or damaged. A homeowners insurance policy can also help if someone is injured on your property.
Homeowners insurance provides a variety of coverages such as dwelling coverage, personal property coverage, other structures coverage and personal liability coverage. Your Schoppe Insurance agent can help you determine your homeowners insurance needs.
Each coverage has a specific purpose. For instance, dwelling coverage helps protect your home and the structures attached directly to it, while other structures coverage is for buildings on your property that are not attached to your house, like sheds. For all your belongings inside the house, like furniture, clothing and appliances, personal property coverage is there to protect them. And if you’re sued after someone gets hurt on or off your property, liability coverage can help cover your legal defense and help pay for court judgments, up to the policy limit.
Types of Homeowners Insurance Coverages
Homeowners’ policies combine several types of coverage into one policy. Most homeowners policies in Texas include these six coverages:
Dwelling coverage pays if your house is damaged or destroyed by something your policy covers.
Personal property coverage pays if your furniture, clothing, and other things you own are stolen, damaged, or destroyed.
Other structures coverage pays to repair structures on your property that aren’t attached to your house. This includes detached garages, storage sheds, and fences.
Loss of use coverage pays your additional living expenses if you have to move while your house is being repaired to fix damages your policy covers. Additional living expenses include rent, food, and other costs you wouldn’t have if you were still in your home.
Personal liability coverage pays medical bills, lost wages, and other costs for people that you’re legally responsible for injuring. It also pays if you’re responsible for damaging someone else’s property. It also pays your court costs if you’re sued because of an accident.
Medical payments coverage pays the medical bills of people hurt on your property. It also pays for some injuries that happen away from your home – if your dog bites someone at the park, for instance.
Other Coverages you Might Need
Your homeowners’ policy might not protect you against some risks. You can buy a separate policy or add on to your policy if you need more protection.
Flood Insurance
Homeowners’ policies don’t cover damage caused by floods. If your home is in a designated flood zone, your lender requires you to have flood insurance. But floods can happen anywhere. More than half of the homes flooded by Hurricane Harvey were outside of designated flood zones.
Most flood policies have a 30-day waiting period before kicking in, so don’t wait for an approaching storm before deciding to buy coverage.
Windstorm and Hail Insurance on the Gulf Coast
If you live on the Texas coast, your homeowners policy doesn’t cover wind and hail damage. Get your Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) from us. Depending on where you live, you might need flood insurance before TWIA sells you a policy. You also might need a home inspection by an engineer or a windstorm inspector.
Don’t wait until the last minute to buy wind and hail insurance. TWIA won’t sell you a policy if there’s a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
Extra Liability Coverage
Homeowners policies provide liability protection, but the amount of coverage is limited. If you want more coverage than your policy provides, you can buy a separate umbrella liability policy.
Extra Coverage (Endorsements)
Common endorsements include coverage for:
- jewelry, fine arts, or electronics (your policy provides some coverage, but it might not be enough to cover expensive items)
- backup of sewers or drains
- damage to foundations or slabs
- extra construction or repair costs to meet local building codes
- extra construction costs if your policy doesn’t pay enough to rebuild your home
- mold removal
Other Types of Property Insurance
- Renters insurance covers your clothes, furniture, and other personal property if they’re stolen or damaged while you’re living in a rented house or apartment. Renters insurance won’t pay to fix the house or apartment building. The building owner’s policy does that. You might not need renters insurance if you’re still a dependent. Your parents’ homeowners policy might cover your property, even if you’re not living at home.
- Condominium insurance covers your personal property and the interior of your unit. It also provides liability protection and pays additional living expenses.
- Townhouse insurance can either cover the interior and exterior of your townhouse or just the interior. The difference depends on whether the homeowners association has a master policy that covers the exterior. If it does, you can buy a policy that covers only the interior. If the association’s master policy doesn’t cover the exterior, you can buy a policy that covers both the interior and exterior. Townhouse insurance also covers your personal property and provides liability and additional living expenses coverage. Our agents can help you determine what type of townhouse insurance you’ll need. We have 3 offices that can help you find the right homeowners insurance in Rockport, Sargent, and Yorktown.
- Mobile home insurance covers the mobile home, your personal property, and additional living expenses. It also provides liability coverage.
- Farm and ranch insurance is for homes outside city limits on land used for farming and raising livestock.
Save when you combine coverage
