How To Fully Protect Your Home

By Author: Marcus Stalder
Total Articles: 491
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If you are looking for insurance for your home, or any insurance for that matter, it is always best to know exactly what the insurance company is offering you before you sign the dotted line. Most Americans have a general idea on how insurance works when you are protecting your home, and how most forms of insurance work as well. But when it comes right down to it, every single insurance policy is different, and simply knowing the basics may not cut it when it comes down to your house insurance. Before you start getting quotes for your insurance, you want to be sure that you know every possible aspect of house insurance, or you may wind up with a policy that won't help you when you need it most. Not educating yourself on the ins and outs of house insurance could wind up costing you thousands of dollars down the road, or right now through your premiums. Here we will talk about the most important things you need to know about your insurance policy.

The United States experienced their worst natural disaster along the Gulf Coast in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit. This caused a huge housing situation as residents were dislocated, ...
... lost their homes, or all of the above. This disaster ended up being the most expensive disaster in American history, for the government, and for the insurance companies. It also cost the residents of the Gulf Coast hundreds of thousands of dollars because many did not have the proper housing insurance on their assets. These citizens made the mistake of trusting that the insurance companies had their back, when it came right down to it, in some cases they just didn't, because they didn't have to.

An insurance policy is literally a protection from risk to you, but it is much different than a guarantee of protection as you might have found out if you were one of the hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents that lost everything they worked their entire lives for. The critical thing missing from their insurance policies was flood protection. While they may have been protected from some natural cause damage, the true damage from Katrina occurred when the levees broke and the flooding occurred. So, for residents that had Hurricane protection but did not have flood protection, they lost everything, and there was nothing that anybody could do about it.

The most important thing you need to know when you are protecting your home is, what potential losses could you incur? Make a list and include everything, taking into account where you live and the potential hazards that could occur. What your homeowners insurance will do for you is provide a contract between you and your insurance company that they will protect you against loss by a "covered" peril. If you are not covered for a specific peril and it unfortunately should happen to you, you will have no recourse with the insurance company, a lesson learned with great difficulty along the Gulf Coast.

Your insurance company will help you with this, and your policy will specifically state what is and what is not covered. Keep in mind when you are seeking homeowners insurance quotes, there is no one company that can cover you for every situation or every possible event. That being said however, knowing your perceived perils to your home ahead of time will take you a long way towards getting the most affordable and comprehensive homeowners insurance.