Home Insurance
You’ll often hear the phrase “your home is your biggest investment” given as a reason to protect the value of your home. Throw in your personal belongings and financial wellbeing, and you’ll see why property insurance is so important.
Property insurance is designed to cover your house, structures and add-ons to your property, and your personal belongings in the case of damage, helping with the costs associated with repair, rebuilding, replacing, and more. If you lose your home and its contents, property insurance can cover your living expenses until you have suitable replacements. It can also cover you in the case that someone else is injured or suffers loss of property because of your actions.
There are four things that property insurance is meant to cover: your home, your belongings, liability claims and living expenses.
Coverage for your home includes detached structures on your property, such as garages and sheds. Your belongings include contents inside your home such as furniture, electronics, clothing, and other personal property.
Liability coverage protects you financially from bodily injuries or property damage to others while they’re on your property. Living expenses covers costs such as hotel rooms, storage costs, restaurant meals, and other additional living expenses for time away from your home due to an insured loss.
Additional premium endorsements are available to extend your home insurance coverage to include certain exclusions or situations not covered by a standard home insurance policy. Important endorsement to consider are:
- Protection against sewer back-ups
- Flooding from overland water
- Scheduled personal articles
- Home based business
- Watercraft endorsement
- Identity theft
What Determines the Cost of Property & Homeowner Insurance?
There are several factors which can influence the monthly premiums associated with your insurance policy:
- Location - Some areas are deemed a higher risk than others. This could be because of the relative chance of natural disasters, crime rates, and proximity to fire stations and hydrants
- Home Size and Cost to Rebuild - Since an insurance policy might have to pay out to replace part or all of a home, the size of the home is considered.
- Home Age and Condition - The type of construction, electrical, plumbing, heating, and age of roof
- Basement - Many basements are no longer just used primarily for storage ad laundry. Many are finished and used for recreational purposes often with expensive furnishings.
- Special Items - You can opt to have special coverage for specific items. For example, an expensive work of art, collectibles, or jewellery.
Given that these are some of the factors relevant to the specifics of your insurance policy, you should be ready with information to give to your insurance provider. Some things which you might need to know include what your home is made from, what your past claim history is, what the history of your home is in terms of additions and renovations, the distance to the nearest fire hydrants and emergency services, additional buildings and property features.
In addition to all of these, your personal risk profile is an important factor. Your age, credit history, and past claim history will all factor in your insurance policy’s final cost.
Our highly trained and professional property insurance brokers will work closely with you to develop a personalized and competitively priced insurance package to protect everything that means the most to you.