Maintenance or Covered Loss: What’s the Difference?

Your home is often your biggest investment. Not only from a financial perspective, but also on a personal level. It’s the place where you seek refuge at the end of a long day. Where you make memories with family and friends. It makes sense that you’d want to do everything possible to protect something that important, right?

Insurance coverage is a crucial part of keeping your home protected from the unexpected. However, insurance doesn’t always step in every time something breaks or goes wrong. So how can you tell the difference, especially if this is the first time you’re navigating home ownership?

Even if you’ve never owned a home before, you’ve more than likely owned a vehicle of some sort. There are some great comparisons to be made between vehicle ownership and home ownership. For example, you expect certain items on your car to get worn out with normal use. Things like tires, brakes, and batteries get used up or deteriorate with time and mileage. You expect to replace these items if you own the car long enough, and you likely wouldn’t even think about filing a claim for these repairs under your standard auto policy. That coverage is reserved for major, unexpected events such as collisions or theft.

The same can be said about owning a home. Items such as roofs and central heating and air conditioning units also deteriorate with usage and time. In older homes, plumbing and electrical systems may need to be completely replaced due to wear and tear, or because newer and better alternatives are now available. If you own your home long enough, you should plan for at least some of these expenses to be incurred. These maintenance items are much like tires or brakes on your car.

Homeowners insurance is meant to protect against sudden, unexpected losses that are caused by specific events. This can include things like wind, hail, fire and lightning. Depending upon your specific homeowners policy, there can be many other things that are considered covered losses, but maintenance items are not one of them.

Your policy documents are the definitive source of information about the coverages that you have in place. However, your insurance agent is an excellent resource to utilize if you have questions about what is or isn’t covered under your policy.