Homeowners Insurance

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If you’re like most folks, your home is your most valuable possession and something that you want to protect. Homeowners insurance not only protects the structure and contents of your home, but provides liability coverage if someone is injured on your property.

Home insurance coverage protects you from a loss you most likely cannot afford. It ensures that your assets are protected from the perils of: fire and lightning; theft; vandalism; smoke damage; freezing; building collapse; accidental discharge, leakage or overflow of water or steam, and more.

For residents of coastal counties, South Texas flood insurance and South Texas windstorm insurance must be purchased separately.

Placing the proper amount of insurance on your home is your responsibility. It is important for you to have enough coverage on your home to allow you to completely rebuild your home at current building costs in the event your home is totally destroyed by a fire or windstorm, for example.

This means you should place a realistic dollar amount of coverage on your house and resist the temptation to underinsure your home. Should you underinsure your house you may be assigned a “Coinsurance Penalty” in the event of a major loss at just the time you need your insurance most.

Available Coverage

Determining the proper amount of coverage can be difficult but we have computer programs that can assist you in determining the true replacement cost of your dwelling and adjacent structures. There are a few factors that must be considered and evaluated before choosing your homeowners insurance coverage. You will want to discuss each of these with your agent at the time of purchasing homeowner’s insurance.

• Replacement Cost (RC) – what you would pay to rebuild your home based on present day construction costs. Replacement cost is different from “market value” or “appraised value”. RC does not include the value of your land, because your land can never be destroyed. In order to have RC on your dwelling, it must be insured for at least 80% of its true RC at the time the loss occurs.
• Actual Cash Value (ACV) – in the absence of Replacement Cost, you have an Actual Cash Value insurance policy. In the event of a loss the company will pay the depreciated value of your damaged property. The amount your loss is reduced between Replacement Cost and Actual Cash Value is called the “Coinsurance Penalty”. Again, in order to avoid a Coinsurance Penalty, it is important not to underinsure your home.
• Deductibles – help to reduce your premium cost, but also limit the amount you may recover in event of loss. The deductible is always applied to the first portion of any loss. You should carry as high a deductible as you can afford.
• Endorsements – policy add-ons that cover special items or increase your coverage. Common endorsements include coverage for residential glass, jewelry, fine arts, camera equipment, coin or stamp collections, computer/electronic equipment, an in-home office, and satellite dishes.

There are a number of discounts available on your homeowners insurance. Discounts vary by company but we want you to receive any and all discounts available to you.

For complete details about homeowner’s insurance coverages and options, please contact us or come by our Alliance Insurance office so we can gather all the information needed to find the best policy available for you.