What Your Home Insurance Doesn’t Cover

When you buy your first home and you are looking at home insurance policies, you might assume that every possible dent is automatically covered by a home insurance policy; however, unfortunately, this is not the case. Each policy gives you different types of coverage, ranging from liability to a comprehensive coverage, which includes both liability and property. You can usually even get financial assistance if you are ever displaced from your home, if there are damages which cause you and your family to be displaced from the home. Although this coverage can give you great peace of mind, several incidents remain uncovered by a typical home insurance policy, and we wanted to share the main costs that US News & World Report recently listed to inform you.

Not all incidents can be covered by your typical home insurance. But we at Elite Insurance Solutions can help you find the best home insurance policy that’s just right for you.

FLOODING

Remember the Great Flood of May 2010? So many people lost their homes due to this horrible natural disaster, and they mistakenly believed their home insurance would cover their losses. However, many were greatly disappointed to learn that flood damage was NOT covered, and that they needed additional coverage through the federal government’s FEMA National Flood Insurance Program. If your home is in a flood plain or if it suffered any damage during the May 2010 flood, be sure you have coverage with this FEMA flood insurance program.

POST-TRAUMATIC EMOTIONAL SUPPORT

If you have ever experienced living through a home burning down or a tornado damaging your home, you know that, afterwards, you can suffer emotional and psychological damage as well as damage to your home. Unfortunately, home insurance policies do not offer any services to get you the psychological treatment you may need. You will have to find support groups, online forums, or a therapist on your own and pay out-of-pocket for these services.

LOST WAGES

Dealing with home damages, filing insurance claims, and possible appeals can take a lot of time and may even cause you to take time off work. You might also have to take days off from work to deal with contractors who are repairing the damages on your home. Your home insurance policy will not reimburse you for any lost wages you occur from taking this time off work to deal with these problems, so keep that in mind when you are dealing with the aftermath.

A TOTAL REBUILD

Many homeowners mistakenly believe if their home completely burns down, their home insurance policy will automatically cover the total rebuild of the original home. However, this is not always the case. The majority of home insurance policies do have caps, which could mean the total cost of an entire rebuild will not be fully covered by the policy. Be sure to know what the cap is on your policy before you plan the rebuild of your home in the case if your home burns down.

BURST PIPES

You know the danger that can happen when the temperature falls below freezing…if you don’t keep the water dripping from all of your faucets, you can run the risk of your pipes freezing and bursting. If you neglect to do this and your pipes do burst, your home insurance policy will not cover the damage done by these pipes bursting. However, many home insurance policies will cover burst pipe damage if it is not caused by homeowner negligence.

REQUIRED UPGRADES

Sometimes new laws will require homeowners to upgrade parts of their homes that are undamaged, and your home insurance policy will not cover these upgrades. Fortunately for you, there is an extra “ordinance or law” coverage that you can add to your existing policy that will cover you in these instances, if they should occur.

Seeing that there are several incidents uncovered by a regular home insurance policy, you as a homeowner may be concerned about your own policy and may want answers on how to improve on your current policy. Give us a call today at Elite Insurance Solutions, and we will be happy to discuss your policy and help you be as fully covered as you possibly can be to give you even more peace of mind in your home.