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Home Insurance
What happens after you file a home insurance claim?
Why should home insurance companies consider historic homes as a separate category? After all, it is pretty much the same as any rented apartment of a townhouse.
Well, this is not the situation here, primarily because of the home’s historic value. This means that, if any unexpected event damages your historic home, trying to fix it will require a different sort of labor work and construction material because you need to replicate the historic look again. This will definitely cost more than a situation in which a recently built home that’s damaged is getting repaired.
Keeping in mind the fact that it would cost more to replace a historic home, you need to accept that the premiums are going to on the higher side for this. Typically the HO-8 type policy is what a historic homeowner can take because this policy is the one covering the repair and replacement costs. However, taking a costly policy for a historic home is worth it in the end. Take a situation where your home’s door is damaged due to burglary. If you have opted for home insurance policy that specifically protects your historic home, it will pay for the cost of replacing the door at its current value.
There are certain issues in getting insurance for historic homes and it’s important to be aware of what these might be so that you know what to expect. Many insurance companies may require that your home be nominated or listed on the Historic Register or be in a recognized historic district. Sometimes insurance companies even refuse to provide specialized insurance because they feel that historic homes are just homes that are falling apart. Damages to features such as old plumbing or fireplace can be very costly to repair to the original mould. In some cases the insurance company will say no to such coverage because the repair costs are crossing the redline and is not legal.
There are two things you can do about all this. First, you can check if your home is in a historic district. If it is, find out the insurance company that insures other homes in your neighborhood. A good place to find such information is the National Trust for Historic Preservation. You can get details of historic home insurance coverage and claims from here.
Before you decide to take up the policy, consider all factors and weigh the pros and cons for paying higher premiums every year for true replacement costs on your policy and the importance you place on your home. Now on the other hand if you find out that your home is not listed on the Historic Register, it will be considered as an older home which means, you an just take up a regular homeowners’ policy and doing this saves you a lot of money!
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