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and Texas Windstorm Insurance Agency

We Are A Houston Independent Agency Offering Texas Homeowners Insurance and Homeowner Insurance Quotes in Houston, TX.

How much Texas home insurance coverage should I purchase?

You need an adequate amount of Texas homeowners insurance to cover the following:

• The construction of your home.
• Your personal property.
• The expense of additional living if your home is damaged and you are forced to live somewhere else during repairs.
• Liability coverage for others.

You need enough coverage to cover the expense of rebuilding your home at present construction costs. Do not include the cost of the land, and do not base your reconstruction costs on the amount you paid for your home. The price of rebuilding could be grater or less than the amount you paid or could sell it for today.

All Texas banks demand you purchase Texas home insurance to protect the amount of your loan. If the coverage amount of your insurance policy is based on your loan, make certain it is enough to cover the rebuilding cost.
Note: When your loan is paid off, do not cancel your homeowners insurance policy. Home insurance in Texas protects your investment in your home.

To get a quick estimate of the amount of coverage you need to, multiply the square footage of your house with local home costs per square foot. To obtain construction costs in your area, contact your local agent or builders association.

Factors determining the cost of rebuilding your house:

• Construction costs
• The square footage of your home
• The type of wall construction - Brick veneer, frame, masonry, stucco etc.
• The style of your home - Contemporary, colonial etc.
• The total amount of rooms and bathrooms
• The roof type and roof material
• Other structures on your property such as sheds or garages
• Fireplaces, and other features such as custom windows
• Whether the house is basic, semi custom, custom etc.
• Upgrades to your home: adding an additional bathroom, expanding the kitchen or further additions that have added value to your home



Traditional Houston homeowners insurance provides coverage for disasters such as:

• Damage due to fire, lightning, hail, explosions and theft. They do not cover floods, earthquakes or damage caused by poor maintenance.

Replacement Cost Policies

Most Texas homeowner insurance policies include replacement cost for destruction to the structure. A replacement cost policy pays for the restoration or replacement of damaged property with materials of related kind and quality. There is no subtraction for depreciation -- the reduction in value due to age, wear and tear, and other causes.

If you buy a Houston flood insurance policy, coverage for your structure is offered on a replacement cost basis.

Extended or guaranteed replacement cost

In the aftermath of a major hurricane or a tornado, building resources and construction workers are always in great demand. This can increase rebuilding costs above homeowner policy limits, leaving you without the sufficient funds to cover the cost. To protect against such circumstances, you can purchase a policy that pays above the policy limits.

Extended replacement cost policies will pay an additional 20% or more on top of the limits, depending on your company.
Guaranteed replacement cost policies will pay whatever it costs to reconstruct your home as it was prior to the fire or other disaster.

Building codes

Building codes are updated occasionally and may have changed considerably since your home was first built. If your home is seriously damaged, you may be obligated to rebuild your home to meet the latest building codes. In general, Houston homeowners insurance policies won't cover for the additional expense of rebuilding to code. Numerous companies offer an Ordinance or Law endorsement that covers a specific amount toward these costs. (Endorsements are forms attached to your current coverage that modifies what the policy covers.)

Inflation guard

Think about adding an inflation guard clause to your policy. This automatically adjusts the coverage limit when you renew your policy to mirror present construction costs in your community.

Texas Windstorm Insurance

TWIA provides wind and hail insurance coverage to qualifying residents along the gulf coast.

The Texas windstorm policy is available for the following counties:

• Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Galveston, Harris (Partial), Jefferson, Kennedy, Kleberg, Matagorda, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, and Willacy.



Coverage is available for the following property types.

Residential Property and Personal Items.
• Family homes, personal posessions, and mobile homes.

Commercial:
• Commercial construction, companies personal assets, apartment complex and condos.
  
• Misc. Coverage: Pools, business billboards, fence, and more.



The Texas Windstorm Policy does not provide coverage for any of the following.

• Damage caused by flood.
• Damage caused by a storm surge.

Coverage for older homes

If you own an older home, replacement cost may not be an option on your policy. Instead, you may have to purchase a modified replacement cost policy. This means that instead of restoring or replacing features standard in older homes, such as plaster walls and wood floors, with similar materials, the policy will pay for repairs with standard building materials and construction methods in use today.

Texas Independent Insurance Companies

Insurance companies vary greatly in the way they cover older homes. Some will not insure older homes at replacement cost due to the cost of re-creating unique features like wall and ceilings and carvings. Other companies will insure older homes for the replacement cost as long as the home is in excellent condition.

If you cannot insure your home at replacement cost or select not to do so -- in some cases, the cost of restoring an older home is so great that you may not want to replace it with a house of the same size -- make sure the coverage limits of the policy are large enough to provide you with a house of adequate size and quality.

Personal property Ins. Coverage

Most homeowner insurance in Houston, Texas offers coverage for your personal property for around 50% to 70% of the dwelling coverage of your home. The limits of the policy usually appear on the Declarations Page under Section I, the dwelling.

To establish if this is enough coverage, you must conduct a home inventory. This is a full list of everything you own and information associated with the cost to replace these objects if they were stolen or damaged by a natural disaster such as a fire. If you feel you need more coverage, call your agent or a company representative and request higher limits for your personal property.

You can insure your possessions in two different ways. You can insure your possessions for their actual cash value or their replacement cost.

Replacement Cost or Actual Cash Value

A actual cash value policy covers the cost to replace your property minus depreciation.
A insurance replacement cost policy compensates you for the cost to replace the item.

Consider, for example, a fire annihilates a 10-year-old TV. If you have replacement cost on the contents of your home, the company will pay to replace the TV with a brand new one. If you have actual cash value policy, it will pay only a portion of the cost of a new TV because the TV has been operating for 10 years and is worth much less than its original cost. Some replacement cost policies additionally replace the item and deliver it to you.

Normally, the price of replacement cost coverage is roughly 10% more than actual cash value. If you want flood insurance in Houston, you can buy flood coverage for your possessions. Texas Flood Insurance is only available on an actual cash value basis.

Insuring high-priced items with floaters/endorsements

There are generally limits on the amount of coverage you get for expensive items such as jewelry and furs. Normally, there is a limit on jewelry for $1,000 to $2,000. You should ask your local agent or check your policy. This info is in Section I, Personal Property, and Special Limits of Liability. Companies might also place limits on what they will pay for computers.

If the limits are too low, consider purchasing a special personal property floater or an endorsement. These permit you to insure these items separately or as a collection. With floaters and endorsements, there is no deductible. You are charged a rate based on what the item is, the location of your home and its cash value.

You can establish the value by providing your agent with a current receipt or by having the item or collection appraised.

Additional living expenses after a catastrophe

This is an extremely important feature of a typical Houston home insurance policy. This covers the additional costs of temporarily moving away from your home if it is unlivable due to a fire, severe storm or other insured catastrophe. It covers your hotel, restaurant meals and other living expenses acquired while your home is being rebuilt.

The coverage limits for additional living expenses vary from company to company. Most policies provide coverage for around 20% of the insurance on your home. Some companies policies provide you with an unlimited amount of loss of use coverage, for a specific amount of time.

If you rent out part of your home, this coverage will reimburse you for the rent you would have gathered from your tenant if your home had not been damaged.

You should contact your agent or company to make sure you know precisely how much coverage you have and the length of time the coverage will be in effect. Generally, you can raise this coverage for an additional premium.

Personal Liability Coverage

This part of your homeowner policy protects you from lawsuits for bodily injury or property damage that you or family members caused to another party. It also pays for damage caused by household pets. It pays for defending you in court and for any damages a judge rules you to pay.

Usually, Houston homeowner insurance policies offer a minimum of $100,000 worth of liability insurance, but larger amounts are obtainable. Increasingly, it is suggested that homeowners think about purchasing at least $300,000 to $500,000 worth of coverage of liability protection.

Liability Ins. - Umbrella

You should purchase enough liability insurance to cover your assets. If you possess property and or have investments and savings that are worth more than the liability coverage in your policy, you might want to consider purchasing an excess liability or umbrella policy.

Umbrella insurance policies or excess liability policies offer extra coverage. They begin to pay once you have used up the liability insurance in your underlying home (or auto) policy. An umbrella policy is not part of your homeowner policy. You have to buy it separately. In addition to providing a larger dollar amount, they offer broader coverage. You are protected for libel, slander, and invasion of privacy. These are not covered on a standard homeowner or auto policies.

The price of an umbrella policy depends on the amount of underlying coverage you have and the kind of risk you characterize. The greater the liability coverage is, the cheaper the policy. This is because you would be less likely to need the extra insurance. The majority of companies will want a minimum of $300,000 on your house and your car, if you own one.

Get your home insurance quotes online at Insurance over Texas. We are a complete online source for free home insurance quotes. Our insurance agents offer the best home insurance in Texas.