The HO3 policy is the most common home insurance policy in the United States. Provides excellent coverage for your home and good coverage for your personal property. With the HO3 policy, your home is covered on an open perils basis, and its contents (personal property) are covered under one name perils. An open perils policy does not specifically list the perils your home insurance covers; rather, it lists the dangers that your home insurance It does not cover. If the damage to your home is not caused by something on the exclusion list, then you are covered. A named-perils policy specifically lists the perils for which your personal property is covered. If something happens to your belongings that are not on the list of covered perils, you are not covered.
Personal liability insurance can be of 2 types:
* Bodily Injury – This type of liability insurance covers your legal liability when someone is injured in or near your home. An example would be someone falling down the stairs at home or slipping on an icy sidewalk. Bodily injury liability in conjunction with the medical payments (sometimes called “guest medical”) portion of your homeowner’s policy. Medical payments help pay for the reasonable and necessary medical expenses of nonresidents who are accidentally injured on or near your property. Your personal liability covers when there are claims of negligence that caused the injury or a lawsuit filed due to the incident.
* Property Damage – This type of liability will cover the cost of damage you do to someone else’s property. As an example, your son throws a baseball through a neighbor’s window and damages an expensive piece of art. Property damage would pay for both the window and the artwork, up to the policy limits.
What does my Personal Liability Insurance cover?
One of the most important components of homeowners, condos, or HO6 renters insurance policy is the personal liability section. This coverage provides protection for accidents you are responsible for that occur inside or outside your home and result in bodily injury or property damage. Basically, personal liability homeowners insurance is there to protect your assets in the event that someone is injured in your home or due to a mistake or accident that you cause. It can be a financial lifesaver as medical costs can quickly spiral out of control, and in our litigious society, there is a good chance you will end up being sued.
What is Not Covered in the HO3 policy?
Insurance for homeowners, condos, and renters has exclusions, meaning that household members cannot claim against the coverage. For example, the home exclusion would prevent a resident of the home from making a medical claim for slipping on their own icy porch. Instead, the injured party would have to make a claim with their own health insurance provider for the resulting medical bills. Also, your household’s vehicles are not covered under the personal property or liability portion of a home insurance policy. So if a neighbor can file a claim if her son throws a baseball and breaks a window in her car, if it happens to her car, she can’t get under her home policy. She can make a claim under the comprehensive coverage of her auto insurance policy.