Wildfire and coastal wind get the headlines. Severe convective storm quietly costs more than either. Water is the one you are most likely to actually meet, and earthquake is the one excluded from every policy in the country. Each guide covers the specific terms that peril turns on.
A model score you have never seen decides whether a carrier will write you, and it can be wrong. Mitigation credits, appealing a risk score, and why a FAIR Plan policy without a difference-in-conditions wrap leaves you uninsured for the things most likely to happen.
Your deductible is a percentage, not a number, and three different words — hurricane, named storm, wind — trigger it at three different moments. Wind is often carved out of the policy entirely, and flood never was in it.
The peril nobody plans for and everybody eventually meets. Separate percentage deductibles, actual cash value roof settlement, and cosmetic damage exclusions that let a carrier decline dented siding as merely unattractive.
The peril you are most likely to actually meet, and the one where the word covers four different things. A burst supply line is covered; the same pipe leaking slowly for months is not. Sewer backup needs an endorsement, and flood was never in the policy at all.
Excluded from every homeowners policy in the country. The deductible is a percentage of your dwelling limit rather than a dollar figure, which is why most Californians do not carry it — and why the ones who do are covered for the loss that would otherwise end them.
Every state page covers its own peril mix, what the residual market looks like there, and what we check on a policy in that state.
Send us your declarations page and we will tell you which peril your carrier is charging you for, whether the deductible attached to it is the one you think it is, and what it works out to in dollars on your dwelling limit.
Independent insurance guidance for your home, your business, and your life across state lines.