Coverage you may want to add to your Ohio HO Policy

First of all, make sure you go over your homeowner’s policy with your insurance agent and make sure you understand what it covers and what it does not cover. As a new insurance agent, it didn’t take me long to figure out what happens when a policy holder believes they were covered for something that they weren’t covered for. Unfortunately, a lot of the items that are not covered, aren’t discovered or missed until a claim or loss arises. I like to say, “It’s all fun and games, until we have a claim”.

We all want to save a few bucks, but quite often, saving a few bucks can cost you a bag of bucks in the future. One of the most overlooked, left out, and most needed coverage’s I’ve seen thus far is “WATER BACK-UP” coverage.  Here is what water-back coverage is: this coverage may help pay for water damage resulting from a backed up drain or sump pump. For instance, it may help cover the cost of replacing furniture or removing water after an unexpected backup.

Why should you add water-backup coverage:

• Its relatively inexpensive
• Water backup losses aren’t cheap – most of them start at close to $5,000
• It is not included in a standard homeowner’s policy
• It happens a lot and can happen to anyone – even if you don’t have a basement, or live at the top of a hill it can happen
• It qualifies you for “Loss of Use” coverage if your home is uninhabitable. And of course, if you have “loss of use” coverage.

I would suggest you add “Flood Coverage” to your homeowners policy, but I won’t because guess what? You cannot add flood coverage to a homeowners policy.  Flood insurance is an entirely different and separate policy. You can find all the information you need about flood insurance on FEMA’s website using this link.