When you invest your hard-earned money in buying a house to live in, it is a dream come true for you and your family members. Every nook and corner of the house has a feeling and memory attached to it. To save all of this, you also invest in house insurance so that you can quickly get money worth of the house in case of an unexpected event taking place. But have you thought of natural calamities?
House insurance does not cover the damages caused by a natural occurrence like a flood. The technical definition of a flood is a temporary condition where two or more acres of land is filled with water by way of rain or storm in the water body nearby. Hence, it is suggested that you should check for the possibility of flood in the area where you are buying your house. You can do this by logging on to the official website of FEMA as they determine the likelihood of floods and suggest you to take a policy accordingly.
The agency updates the flood risk maps from time to time and puts them up online for everyone to observe before they buy a house in a given area. There is a FEMA insurance rate map that determines the flood risk zone that you may be buying your home into and the insurance that you should be purchasing accordingly. There is a mandate on the high-risk areas marked on the map to have insurance coverage under the federal laws. These areas are mostly in and around the coastline of the country. The moderate risk areas have had twenty percent of the total claims in the past. Depending upon the statistic from the past, it is upon you to decide on the policy in which you would want to invest your money. There are undetermined risk areas also that have not been under the radar of the organization and had no record of a flood in the past.
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Flood insurance mostly covers the structure of your house and the contents inside it. It does not include the cost of the plot on which your home is standing. So anything that falls under the category of materials and the structure of the house from foundation to the roof of the house is covered by the insurance. It is vital to read the property policy carefully before you buy the insurance as specific items of the house have limits to how much the company will pay if a flood damages the home. For example, artworks and fur antiques have an upper limit of twenty-five hundred dollars. It is done keeping in mind the priceless nature of the things people have in their house and everything cannot be paid back for their actual cost.
Like all other policies issued by various companies, the flood insurance policy also has exclusions that need to be covered under some other section or kept more safely. Plans do not cover money, valuable metals, and any treasured paperwork. They do not include most self-propelled vehicles like automobiles either. The insurance claim partially covers the basement valuables in the event of a flood. So, if you are planning on buying a house with a basement space in a high-risk area then maybe you should decide otherwise. You could also try and keep all the valuables away from the lower floors as it only covers stuff like groundwork of the house, drywall, lining, stairways, electrical outlets and switches and central air conditioners.
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