Personal Insurance Blog

I recently had dinner with a friend that I have not seen for some time.  He had been living in his large, family home while cleaning it up and trying to sell it.  However, he was not having any luck selling the house so he decided to rent it out.  I asked him if he had contacted his agent about the insurance on it.  He had not and was very surprised when I told him that his Homeowner’s Insurance would not give him any coverage while the house that he owned was rented to others. 

We have found this to be a very common scenario.  If you own the home and are living in it, then a Homeowner’s Policy is what you can have.  These policies are usually less expensive than a Dwelling Fire Policy because the owner of the home is more likely to take care of the home than a tenant.  If you own a home and are renting it out, you should have a Dwelling Fire Policy which will cover the Dwelling, Liability, and Personal Property (if you have any in the house).   On a different note, if suddenly your home becomes vacant and/or unoccupied (even though you still own it) you would need to get a Vacant Dwelling Policy.

Yes, both of these types of policies may cost you  more than the Homeowner’s Policy but keep in mind that if you do not “rate” the policy correctly, you run the chance of the company denying paying a claim – At that point, you have then paid for nothing!  I would rather see people pay for insurance that will actually be there for them if it is ever needed.

If you have any questions at all about the coverage for your home, please feel free to contact us and we can help you with this. Check out this other blog about homeowners insurance changes.