Property insurance is a policy that provides financial reimbursement to the owner or renter of a structure and its contents in the event of damage or theft. Property insurance can include homeowners insurance, renters insurance, flood insurance and earthquake insurance. Personal property is generally covered by a homeowners or renters policy, unless it is of particularly high value, in which case it can usually be covered by purchasing an addition to the policy called a “rider.” If there’s a claim, the property insurance policy will either reimburse the policyholder for the actual value of the damage or the replacement cost to remedy the damage.
Perils typically covered by property insurance include damage caused by fire, smoke, wind, hail, weight of ice and snow, lightning, theft and more. Property insurance also provides liability coverage in case someone other than the property owner or renter is injured while on the property and decides to sue.
Property insurance policies normally do not cover water damage caused by floods, tsunamis, drain backups, sewer backups, groundwater seepage, standing water and many other water sources. They also may not cover mold, earthquakes, nuclear events or acts of war, such as terrorism and insurrections.
There are three types of property insurance coverage: replacement cost, actual cash value, and extended replacement costs. Replacement cost coverage pays the cost of repairing or replacing your property with like kind & quality. Coverage is based on replacement cost values, not actual cash value of items. Actual cash value coverage provides for replacement cost minus depreciation. Extended replacement cost will pay over the coverage limit if the costs for construction have increased. This usually won’t exceed 25 percent of the limit. When you obtain an insurance policy, the limit is the maximum amount of benefit the insurance company will pay for a given situation or occurrence.