Hey everyone. It’s Keith at the Champagne Agency. I wanted to give you a better understanding of our homeowner’s insurance breakdown and what the terminology means for the five basic components of a homeowner’s insurance quote. So when we send you over a quote, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.
The first is a Dwelling. The dwelling amount will always be more because it’s actually a reconstruction cost, so it will be more than perhaps the value or what you can sell your home for. The reason being is you got to account for things like materials and labor. So the dwelling reconstruction cost, at least the example that I have here, is about $170,000 for this particular home or this example. So first and foremost would be the dwelling coverage, that’s the amount that the house would cost to rebuild.
The next component is called Other Structures. Other structures are detached structures from the property, so typically a detached garage or a fence. Other structures are usually about 10% of coverage of the dwelling. So in this example, $170,000 for the dwelling, the garage would be covered for about $17,000.
Next up is Personal Property, and those are your belongings, things like your couch, your TV, anything that’s detached in your home would be covered under your personal property. Keep in mind that things like high-value jewelry or firearms should be covered separately and specifically.
Next up is Loss of Use. Loss of use is built into a policy, in this case $50,000 of coverage, for you to stay somewhere else while your home is being repaired, somewhere like a hotel or a house of equal value, basically close to your existing accommodations. But that’s built-in while your home is being repaired, so you can move back in once that’s complete.
Next up is Liability. Here at the Champagne Agency, we always try to make sure that you’re covered for at least $300,000 of liability. Other agencies will quote at $100,000 to try to undercut price. We just don’t believe in that, so we believe in giving you more value. So always make sure you’re getting a $300,000 quote, which you’ll always get here. That’s for any sort of damage to property that might happen or any injury to people on your property as well, to give you coverage for that.
There’s two things that aren’t included in the homeowner’s policy we always encourage. The first is Utility Coverage. From about the end of your driveway all the way up to your house, you’re responsible for the sewer line. That can be very expensive if that deteriorates, so we always encourage getting that additional coverage. It’s usually a really small monthly coverage to get that in the event that that happens, but we suggest it because that’s an expensive problem.
And finally Sewer/Drain Backup. It’s Michigan, there’s a lot of water in basements. We always encourage that to make sure you cover your personal belongings. But that’s something that’s separate that we always suggest as well.
Hopefully this has been helpful to you. Feel free to give us a call. We’re always happy to explain any of these components to you, and we look forward to talking to you soon. Thanks.
Call Champagne Agency in Riverview MI at (734) 282-8700