Heading For Coverage Home Protection Options

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By Mia Bolaris-Forget

It may have taken you years of hard work to save up for your home…and now you want to do everything to protect your investment and your family. Your safest bet is not gambling on your future and taking out an insurance policy essential to covering your assets.

Two types of coverage you’ll want to consider include:
· Building Insurance (ideal for property owners)
· Home or contents insurance (for home owners and renters)

Building Insurance: Covers exactly what the name implies, the building. This type of coverage protects the actual property and the foundation it built on. From bricks, the roof, floors, and windows to fitted kitchens, bathrooms and fireplaces; this policy encompasses all your “build-in” amenities and fixtures.

Building insurance is usually a lending requirement, which means you probably wont’ be able to get a mortgage without it. Despite this fact, you are not obligated to obtain a plan from your broker, and is probably more cost-effective not to.

Renting you home generally pardons you from purchasing this policy.

Under Coverage: As previously stated, Building insurance is designed keep you on solid ground and covers everything that is literally a part of your home safeguarding from the following:
· Fire/flood, storm or lightning
· Theft or attempted theft
· Subsidence or heave (when the earth around your home expands or contracts causing shift or rift in the foundation)
· Burst pipes, water tanks or boilers
· If you choose to pay a bit extra, you can also add extra cover for accidental damage, which covers you for things like broken windows, or your foot going through the attic floor.

This plan however does not shield your home from:
· General wear and tear to your home
· Broken fences
· Damage caused by frost or poor maintenance (a slow leak as opposed to a pipe that suddenly burst).

Home Contents Insurance: Protection for the “mobile” home. This coverage guards all belongings you can take with you when you move. Among these:
· Furniture
· Clothes
· Curtains
· Jewelry
· Other valuables, etc.

General coverage includes:
· Stolen possession
· Damaged goods…goods damaged by fire, smoke, floods, storms and other “acts of God”.

Not included in coverage:
· General wear and tear to items
· Accidents (cutting a whole in your carpet during renovations) unless you’ve secured accidental damage coverage as an additional option
· Some plans won’t pay if your house remains vacant for more than a pre-specified period of time. Planning on an extended vacation? You may want to check with your broker before hitting the road.

Experts advise a combined home contents and buildings insurance policy as a means of saving up to ten percent on your plan. They also recommend a separate broker for your home insurance and mortgage, as another money saving technique. They remind you to compare apples with apples and no apples with oranges. Closely examine the coverage each policy offers and any policy excesses.