With over 128 million households, 283 million cars in operation, and the ever-increasing price of real estate, which soared dramatically in 2021, it’s no wonder more and more people are eager to protect their property and belongings from the unexpected.
It’s almost unimaginable to not have homeowners insurance. But here’s the thing: while most people know what type of insurance they want – about 90% of Americans choose all-encompassing peril-open HO-3 and HO-5 policies over named-peril HO-1 and HO-2 – almost half the policy owners are not fully aware of what exactly their policy covers.
The absence of knowledge leads to confusion at best and financial losses at worst. And this is exactly why we are going to preface our ‘loss of use insurance’ piece with six coverages that a typical homeowners policy includes:
Now, while all the types of coverage are important and worth elaborating on, we will only focus on Coverage D. For other parts of homeowners coverage, navigate to our ‘home insurance’ section.
We don’t have to tell you how expensive houses are in the U.S. With hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on your stronghold – or even if you rent a house – you do want to keep it safe and reduce all associated risks.
Speaking of which, there are quite a few disasters that can render your home uninhabitable, making you search for a temporary shelter until your house is fully repaired and ready to re-accommodate you.
However, even though the loss of use coverage is extremely helpful to mitigate the financial and moral discomfort from the unexpected, it doesn’t cover every possible case. Let’s see what you can and cannot cover with loss of use insurance.
The only way to differentiate between what is covered and what is not covered by your loss of use insurance policy is to peruse it, as insurance policies vary in a pretty wide range. That said, a typical loss of use insurance policy is expected to include two main types of coverage:
As you might have guessed from the title, whenever the peril covered by the policy occurs – note, however, that some perils (for example, flood) may be specifically excluded from the policy) – you shouldn’t worry about the subsequent additional expenses. From motel accommodation to laundry to food to parking, the costs exceeding your normal spending will be compensated.
While the homeownership rate hovers around 66%, a fair share of homeowners rent out their houses, either fully or partially. Luckily, they can also be covered. Fair rental value coverage provides reimbursement for lost rental income in case the house that is rented has suffered a peril and become uninhabitable.
Last but not least, even intervention from the government can be covered under loss of use coverage. Though pretty rare, it might happen that the government temporarily prohibits living in your house due to, for example, a wildfire nearby. In this case, government intervention coverage will compensate for your losses.
It goes without saying that you have to be very attentive when reading any insurance policy, and loss of use is no exception. Here are the cases that may catch you off guard:
It does. Condominiums can be covered with homeowners insurance and the D part of it in particular. Note, however, that the amount of loss of use coverage you need for a condo – especially as a condo owner (HO-6 policy, a standard condo insurance policy, does include loss of use coverage) – may be different from the amount of coverage you need for a relatively small house.
Contrary to popular opinion, it does. Just like your house, your car may need repairs, which may temporarily limit your mobility. With the loss of use auto coverage, however, you will receive fair compensation for the losses you suffer from the inability to drive (for example, you may be compensated the amount you need to rent a car of the same class). What’s more, even if your car is declared a total loss, you will be compensated for the time you had to spend waiting for the total loss compensation (which means you’ll be reimbursed twice).
When calculating your best use of coverage limit, the only objective thing you should know is that the amount of loss of use coverage is usually from 20% to 30% of the dwelling coverage. The rest should be dictated by your personal preferences, namely how you juggle the probability of the insurance cases and the money you are ready to part with to safeguard yourself against those possible disasters.
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Oleksandr is an expert in deep research. He covers various insurance topics across verticals, adopting to every local law.
