How protected do you feel with your current home insurance policy?

Homeowner insurance policies seem like a great way to cover your home, property and belongings in the event of damage or loss.

However, basic policies only cover specific situations.

For instance, did you know that your home is typically not covered in the event of a flood or earthquake?

Most good insurance brokers will assess your situation to determine if you require any additional policies to protect your home.

Otherwise, here are some top things you should consider adding to your home insurance policy:

Sewer Backup Coverage

Standard home insurance policies typically do not cover for damages caused by sewer backups but it can often be added to your policy.

Sewer backups can happen quite easily, usually due to clogged or grease-filled drains as well as damaged sewer lines. The damage can be expensive and can result in repairs or loss of property.

Even if your property utilizes a septic system as opposed to a municipal sewage system, there is still a risk of a sewer backup.

Flood Coverage

Homeowners insurance does not cover damage from flooding. Even if you don’t live in an area prone to flooding, you should always check for flooding coverage.

Anything from broken pipes to extreme weather conditions and a damaged foundation can cause your home to flood.

This damage can be pricey, especially to belongings located on lower levels. If you have a finished basement, or valuable items stored on the basement level, you should consider adding flood coverage to your policy.

Raised Deductible

Every homeowners insurance policy details a deductible – the amount of money you pay toward a loss before your insurance pays toward the claim.

Make sure you know your deductible because the higher it is, the lower your premiums are.

Most homeowners insurance policies have a set deductible of $500. However, if you can afford to raise that deductible to $1000, you could stand to save some money on your premiums.

Home Business Coverage

Even with more and more people working from home nowadays, basic homeowner policies do not cover loss or damage of business equipment and materials.

Additional home business coverage can protect you from loss or damage of business equipment as well as legal liability.

If you run a business from home, whether it be on a small or large scale, you can protect yourself by adding this coverage to your policy.

Inflation Guard

Imagine that you need to replace your home due to a total loss – basic homeowners insurance will not cover the inflated cost of your home. They will only cover the cost based on the price you paid for it.

With this type of additional coverage, the amount your home is covered for increases every year to keep up with inflation.

Otherwise, you are looking at recovering on the value you insured it at, not the current value.

Earthquake Coverage

While not everyone has to worry about earthquakes where they live, there are some parts of the world where this is a common occurrence.

However, earthquakes are not covered under basic home insurance.

If you live in an area prone to earthquakes, having this additional coverage will pay for repairs to your home and other structures on your property (such as a shed or garage).

It will cover the costs of bringing your home up to current building codes as well as debris removal expenses.

Coverage for Other Personal Property

Items such as jewelry, electronics, computers and other valuable possessions are not considered to be within the normal household inventory.

Therefore, they are only covered for a certain dollar amount specified by the policy. This may not be enough to replace them.

If not, look into adding scheduled personal property coverage to your policy in the event of loss or damage to these items.

Students’ Personal Property

If you have a child that is moving away to attend college or university, you may be wondering if your current home insurance policy will cover their belongings as well.

A standard policy won’t but, instead of having two home insurance policies, you can add students’ personal property coverage to your existing one.

This protection typically covers 10% of the value of the property in your home insurance plan. For instance, if your home is covered for $50 000, your child’s property will be covered for $5000.

Know Your Policy

Standard homeowners insurance policies are not a total-package deal. While they do provide coverage for many situations, there are some common damages they do not.

The last thing you want is to find yourself in a situation where your policy doesn’t cover damages or losses associated with your home.

Consider adding these coverages to your policy to better protect your home and your family.