Homeowners insurance policies are designed to provide financial protection to your home incase of any disaster such as earthquake, fire, floods and poor maintenance. In fact, a homeowner policy is said to be a package policy in the sense that not only does it provide insurance cover to any damage caused to your home but it also covers your liability in case of any injuries or damage caused by you, the members of your family and your pets. However, in case of disasters like earthquakes and floods, you need to have a separate policy. A standard homeowner policy covers four major areas. These include structure of the home, personal belongings, liability protection, and additional expenses. The additional expenses refer to the ones that you may have incur when you are temporarily unable to live in your house because of damages caused by disasters such as fire, or any other insured disaster.

Structural Cover

The policy covers repairs that may be required because of disasters such as fires, storms, hurricanes, lightening or any other disaster coverage mentioned in your policy. As said before, the policy will not cover damages caused by earthquake and floods. You need to buy a separate policy to cover them.

Personal Belongings

A standard homeowner policy should cover your personal belongings such as furniture, clothes, sports and entertainment equipment that is either damaged because of a fire or a hurricane or has been stolen. You can also opt for off-premises coverage. This means you can obtain coverage for your belongings that are not physically present in the home such as jewelry put away in the bank. In fact, you can also have coverage for your plants and shrubs if damage is caused by fire, vandalism and riots.

Liability

This part of the policy covers you against lawsuits that may result if you or your family members are responsible for bodily injury or property damage of another person.