Find the Best Homeowners Insurance in Connecticut Fast

Your home is often the biggest investment you’ll ever make, which is why you should want to protect it. Home insurance doesn’t just cover the physical structure of your home. Here are the typical coverage buckets for home insurance:

• Dwelling: This covers the structure of your house, including walls, roof, and foundation. It also covers other structures on your property, like a shed. 
• Liability: If someone is injured on your property or if you cause damage to someone else’s property, this helps cover the resulting costs. It also provides you with a legal defense if you’re sued, and potentially funds for the damages. 
• Medical Payments to Others: If someone gets injured on your property, this coverage helps pay for their medical costs. 
• Personal Property: This covers your belongings, like your clothing, jewelry, electronics, furniture, etc. There’s a limit to how much you’re covered for in each category, so if you have a valuable item or collectibles, you might want to look into more coverage.
• Additional Living Expenses: If your home is damaged and you need to move out during repairs, this covers lodging, food, transportation, and more. 

Now that you have a rough idea on what home insurance covers, let’s quickly review the main types of home insurance policies available to you:

• HO-1 policy: Basic coverage for your home, pays out for only ten named perils:
  
  • Fire or lightning
  • Windstorm or hail
  • Explosion
  • Riot 
  • Damage caused by aircraft
  • Damage caused by vehicles 
  • Smoke
  • Vandalism
  • Theft
  • Volcanic eruptions
• HO-2 policy: Broad form coverage that covers the ten named perils in HO-1 plus six more:
  
  • Dwelling coverage for your house and other structures
  • Personal property
  • Personal liability
  • Loss of use or additional living expenses coverage
  • Medical payments to others
• HO-3 policy: This is the most common type of homeowners insurance. It operates on an open peril basis, meaning that all perils are included except for those specifically excluded on your policy. Common exclusions include:
  
  • Power failure
  • Earthquake
  • Flooding
  • Intentional damage
  • War or nuclear events
  • Pets and insects
  • Wear and tear
  • Negligence
• HO-4 policy: This is renter’s insurance and it covers your belongings, liability, and additional living expenses (should you need to leave the apartment during repairs). 
• HO-5 policy: This is the highest level of coverage for homes. It includes all the same coverage as HO-3, but gives you replacement cost rather than actual cash value. This means the actual current cost to replace your home or belongings, rather than the depreciated value.
• HO-6 policy: This is condo insurance that covers you for renovations you make, the walls, floor, and ceiling of your condo, your belongings, liability, medical payments to others, and additional living costs.
• HO-7 policy: This is mobile home insurance.
• HO-8 policy: Home insurance for older or historic homes that covers the ten named perils of HO-1 for your house and belongings, plus liability, medical payments to others, and additional living expenses.

This is a lot of information, but here’s the gist: if you have a home in Connecticut, aim for HO-3 or HO-5 insurance if possible. It’ll give you the most amount of coverage to help protect your home from Connecticut’s weather. 

But that’s not all. You can also customize your policy by adding endorsements, or riders, to help increase your coverage and bring you more peace of mind. More on those next.