What is NOT covered by Homeowners Insurance
Buying homeowners insurance is a no brainer. It simply is a must-have financial product to protect your home and belongings. The right home insurance policy can protect your home from damages caused by natural perils, theft, and more. Although homeowners insurance can protect against various kinds of damage to your home, property, and belongings, there may be a few things that it may not cover.
Lack of maintenance
Let’s start with the basics. If you have bought a home, you must take care of it. You cannot expect a poorly maintained home to protect itself from natural disasters like storms, hurricanes, wildfires, and the likes. A well-maintained home can shield itself from being badly impacted in a hazardous situation. Most damage happens because of poorly maintained homes. And in such cases, your homeowners’ insurance policy may not cover the damage. For instance, if your roof isn’t well-maintained – with regular inspections, with the shingles in good shape, clean gutters, and so on–your homeowners’ insurance coverage may not cover damage to your roof or may be inadequate.
Expensive jewelry
Your home insurance may cover some of your expensive jewelry but you may need to get additional coverage to protect any heirloom pieces or other expensive items. Jewelry is a high-risk item for insurance companies since it is easily stolen. Be sure to check your policy and get any additional riders to get coverage for your precious items.
Sewer back-up
Floods, mold, pest infestation, and other damages caused by sewer backup most likely won’t be covered by your home insurance. Make sure to clean up your drains, plant some greenery in your yard, and keep your sewer system updated so you don’t have to deal with sewer-related problems that may damage your home and that your insurance won’t cover.
Earthquakes
If you live in an earthquake-prone area, you should know that most insurance companies don’t provide coverage for this natural occurrence. You will need to buy separate insurance for it. Check your policy to be sure and get yourself another policy with enough earthquake coverage.
War & other government acts
Your homeowners’ insurance policy may also not protect your home and belongings from disasters as the result of government ordered seizure, nuclear accidents, land acquisition, war, and other acts beyond your control and in the control of the government.
Large-scale disasters
Disasters that leave your home damaged enough not to live in but not damaged beyond repair or replacement may not be covered by your homeowners’ insurance policy. These include tsunamis, high-impact earthquakes, large-scale tornadoes, and so on.
