Homeowner’s insurance: Who’s going to pay the bills when you can’t go home?
Your home insurance policy typically covers the cost to replace personal property and make structural repairs to your home when disaster strikes. But who pays your expenses when your home is temporarily uninhabitable?
All kinds of disasters can strike your home. For instance, thousands of fires damage homes each year. The U.S. Fire Administration reports that in 2010, more than 362,000 residential fires were caused by such things as cooking mishaps and electrical malfunctions. These blazes resulted in more than $6.6 billion in property losses.
People dont think about what happens if, say, their house is by fire and it takes eight or nine months to rebuild, says David Walker, president of Hartland Insurance Agency in Hartland, Mich.
During that time, you have to live someplace else, but your mortgage company still will expect payments. Ditto for the electric company, the tax collector and so on.
Tags: Can’t Home, Home