GUIDES: COVERAGE DECISIONS
Coverage decisions: the choices that set the check before the loss
Most of what a homeowners claim pays is decided long before anything goes wrong, on a page most people read once. The dwelling limit, the settlement basis, the deductible, and a short list of endorsements together set the check. California's insurance department, for instance, describes other structures coverage as normally limited to 10 percent of the dwelling limit, so a choice about one line moves several others.
These guides take those choices one at a time. Begin with the dwelling limit, because other limits are often set as a percentage of it, and because an underinsured house stays underinsured however good the rest of the policy is. Then decide how the house is settled: standard, extended or guaranteed replacement cost, and whether code upgrades are covered at all, which the new ordinance or law guide works through with a labeled example. After that come the form itself, the special limits inside personal property, the water backup gap, and the deductible.
Each guide ends with questions to ask your insurer or agent, because the right answer depends on your house and your savings, not on an average. Use them at renewal, with last year's declarations page open beside the new one, and you will see each choice before it becomes a claim-time surprise.
General explanations of typical policy terms, not insurance advice. Your policy wording controls; flood is a separate policy.
Ordinance or law coverage
The separate limit that pays for code upgrades after a loss, Florida's 25 and 50 percent offer rule, and a worked split of a rebuild.
How much coverage do I need
A four-step dwelling worksheet: rebuild estimate, the 80 percent line, limits that ride on Coverage A, then liability.
Replacement cost vs market value
Why the sale price of a house is the wrong number for its dwelling limit, and what to use instead.
Standard, extended or guaranteed replacement cost
Three promises that look alike on paper and pay differently when a rebuild overruns the estimate.
HO-3 vs HO-5
What the broader form adds for personal property, and how to compare two declarations pages.
Scheduled personal property
The small special limits inside Coverage C, and how scheduling lifts them for jewelry and collectibles.
Water backup coverage
The sewer and sump endorsement the standard form leaves out, with a limit-sizing worksheet.
Flat vs percentage deductible
What a 1 or 2 percent deductible costs in dollars at different dwelling limits.
Read your declarations page
Every coverage line from A to F and the endorsements block, decoded.
Foundation damage and your policy
Settling and earth movement are excluded, a sudden covered event is not: a cause-by-clause table, the collapse rule and the sinkhole definitions in Florida law.
Does homeowners insurance cover mold?
The cause rule in the standard form, mold sublimits and buy-backs from four regulators, and a leak claim worked with and without a cap.
Home warranty vs homeowners insurance
The wear-and-tear line from the policy side and from three states' warranty rules, and a leaking water heater paid by each product.
Theft away from home
Belongings stolen from a car, dorm, hotel or storage unit: where the full limit applies, the 10 percent rule and the theft caps.
Service line coverage for buried lines
Why the base policy rarely pays for the broken pipe under the yard, what the endorsement adds, the age caps, and endorsement vs utility warranty.
Home business and your policy
The $2,500 business property limit, the business liability exclusion, the $2,000 test and remote work, and the three ways to close the gap.
Solar panels and your policy
Owned roof panels as dwelling coverage, ground arrays under the 10% other-structures cap, why leased panels follow the lease, and what an 8 kW system does to the dwelling limit.
Food spoilage after a power outage
Why the HO-3 power failure clause turns on where the outage began, deductible against a $500 food line worked three ways, and where equipment breakdown fits.
Power surge damage and your policy
Lightning against grid current, the peril 15 circuitry carve-out, the utility's tariff cap, and deductible math on a TV and an HVAC board.
For what happens once a loss occurs, see the claims guides. For the condition of the house itself, such as the roof and wind features underwriters price, see home condition. The full list is on the guides page.