House Insurance?
Monday, August 30th, 2010 at
10:47 am
dragonness36 asked:
what do you have to pay insurance on the living area or the
gross area??
what do you have to pay insurance on the living area or the
gross area??
Tagged with: Gross Area • House Insurance • Insurance
Filed under: Homeowners Insurance
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well it all depend on what your house have. Yeah the living area is a factor too. But they look at many other things like pets, fireplace, swimming pool, alarm, updated appliance ect.
Homeowners insurance is based on the replacement cost of your home, or what it would cost to rebuild. Other factors come in to consideration, too, like credit score, age of the dwelling, etc.
I’m sure you’re hoping for a one word answer, either “living” or “gross,” but the answer requires a bit of explanation.
One of the most basic components of any house insurance policy is the Dwelling Coverage. And one of the biggest considerations in determining your dwelling coverage is the square footage of LIVING area.
This means (for example) a detached garage would NOT count towards your total square footage. If you have a 2 story home where the garage has living space above it, the garage counts towards living space if the room(s) above the garage cover at least 50% of the garage. Typically garages count as 240 square feet per parking spot (so a 2 car garage would count as 480 square feet).
If you have another type of enclosed detached structure, such as a guest house or pool house, usually insurers will add together the total square footage for all structures.
As a side note, you’re not paying insurance “on” the area. You’re paying to have your house rebuilt in the event of a loss. This means most houses with the same square footage will cost different amounts to insure. Square footage is an important determination, but it is critical that your insurance company also take into consideration the quality and types of materials used to build and furnish your home. This includes floor types, wall coverings, countertop materials, etc.
Gross. You’re not INSURING the space inside the walls, you’re insuring the WALLS.
An agent can help you calculate the replacement cost of your house, AND the square footage. But Always measure the OUTSIDE of the house, not the inside, or you’ll end up underinsured.