Understand the Coverage in Standard Homeowners Policy

"I'm Ronnie Brown on behalf of Expert Village I'm here to discuss with you tips and tidbits on how to buy homeowners insurance. In this clip we?re going to talk about what is in a standard homeowner?s policy. There's like four components. The first component is the structure itself - the home. When you buy a home you buy it for market value or what not and you insure it usually for that amount or try to, as I explained in earlier clips, for rebuild value. That's only part of the coverage you get with a homeowners policy. The next part is your personal property. Most companies insure personal property for about 70 - 75% of what you insure the house for. So if you insure a house for $100,000 your personal property coverage is seventy to seventy-five thousand dollars. Now again, that can be raised. It can't be lowered but it can be raised because it is actually standard in the policy. There's no charge for it to be 75 or 70%. But if you're going to go 80 - 85%, there's a slight nominal fee probably fifteen, twenty bucks a year to raise it ten, fifteen thousand dollars. Other coverage that you have is liability coverage. This is very, very important. If you were to be sued for any reason, not personal, I mean professional, not tied with your work, what not, then your insurance company provides some liability coverage if there's a liability exposure. So sometimes you get in trouble what not and you don't know who to turn to, turn to your insurance agent. There might be some coverage under your homeowner?s policy with liability. Last but not least, there is the additional living expense. If you were to become displaced from your home because of a loss that is covered by your homeowner?s policy a la fire or what not then there?s additional living expenses incurred there - putting you up in a hotel, putting you up in a motel or an apartment complex or what not. Those costs are covered also in your homeowner?s policy. Most people get confused thinking homeowners only covers just the structure itself but there are many, many coverage?s that are in your homeowners policy that can help in times of need."