Homeowners Insurance

The coverage you have depends upon the type of policy you have. Unlike auto insurance, where the policies are pretty much the same, homeowners policies can be quite different, depending on the “form” number. The most common types of homeowner policies are:

1. HO1 Basic or Standard policy
2. HO2 Broad form
3. HO3 Special (also called Deluxe, All Risk)
4. HO4 Renters policy
5. HO5 Enhanced Special Coverage
6. HO6 Condo policy
7. HO8 Older Home Policy

All homeowner policies are “package” policies. You get a group of coverages packaged into your policy for one overall premium.
They include coverage on:

• your building,
• your contents (furniture, clothing, etc.)
• and liability insurance in case you are sued, under the same policy.

The property coverage is shown under Section 1.
The liability coverage is described under Section 2.

There is no better way to understand your homeowner policy than to read it! We suggest you pull out your policy and find the parts to your policy that correspond to the following explanations:

A typical policy consists of three things:

1. The Declarations Page – that declares who, what and how much you are insuring, along with the date your coverage starts and the premium.
2. The Policy Booklet – printed pages that contain the details of coverages and exclusions.
3. Endorsements – separate pages, usually with endorsement numbers, that change (or endorse) specific parts of the policy.
   Sometimes you are only given the original policy once in the beginning, then on renewal, to cut down expenses, you are just sent the dec. page (declaration page) with the bill. It’s a good idea to save the original policies should you ever need to refer to them.