A homeowners insurance policy offers financial protection in the event a covered loss causes property damage or destroys your personal belongings. It also provides coverage if you injure someone or cause property damage. Homeowners insurance is designed to repair your home, land, and other structures, repair or replace personal belongings, and cover personal liability if you are responsible for causing damage or injury to someone. While homeowners insurance isn’t required by law, most lenders require mortgage holders to have a homeowners policy.
What type of home insurance is needed?
Home insurance provides coverage for your home and belongings. Building coverage is necessary if you are a homeowner or paying a mortgage. If you are a renter, it’s a good idea to take out renter’s insurance to protect your belongings, as the landlord is responsible for building coverage. Contents coverage is designed for both homeowners and renters. Some insurance companies offer contents cover for those living in share houses. You can choose to purchase one policy or the other or get a combined building and contents policy.
A combined home and contents insurance policy features home insurance to cover the cost to repair damage to your property following an insured event, and contents insurance to cover certain belongings. Depending on the type of policy and insurer, home and contents insurance can cover the repair or rebuilding of your home due to a covered loss.
What insurance products are available?
Different insurance companies offer different types of insurance products and rates. A standard home insurance policy covers the cost of repairing or replacing your home due to damage caused by a storm, fire, lightning, or malicious damage. Contents insurance covers your household items and belongings inside your home in the event they are lost, stolen, or damaged. Homeowners who rent their property to tenants benefit from landlord insurance. This type of policy covers damage to the property caused by storms, fire, lightning, theft, and malicious damage. Contents insurance for renters helps cover the repair or replacement cost of certain valuable items damaged by an insured event.
The smart way to get the best rate on the right type of coverage for your needs is to compare policy quotes from different insurance providers. With the home insurance compare tool from iSelect.com.au, you can save time and money comparing home insurance quotes from a range of insurers. When comparing quotes, it’s important to consider whether you rent or own, how much you can afford to replace if you lose everything, whether you need to replace everything, and what’s the most expensive item you own.
Home insurance rates are based on whether you need a home, contents, or a combined policy, the amount of coverage bought, your insurance claims history, and your ZIP code. The policy rate can vary based on the current market value of your home and the value of your personal belongings. Other factors that insurers take into consideration are your age, the building materials, and how your home is occupied.
What does home insurance cover?
Home insurance covers damage to the interior and exterior of your home. Your insurer will provide compensation for the repairing or rebuilding of your home in the event it’s damaged by fire, flood, hurricane, lightning, vandalism, or other covered disasters. Most of the contents in your home, including clothing, furniture, and appliances, are covered in the event they are destroyed by an insured event. Most insurance companies provide a coverage amount of 50 to 70 percent of the amount of insurance on your house.
Most policies provide coverage for fire and explosion, flood, storm and rainwater, lightning, earthquake and tsunami, theft, vandalism, malicious damage, and impact damage. Some policies also provide accidental damage coverage in the event your home or contents are damaged in daily life. You can also opt for add-ons to ensure you have the right type of coverage.
