Are you someone who loves historical artifacts? Do you have the pleasure of living in an older home in West Hartford, Connecticut, complete with all of the history, style, and ambience of bygone days? If so, you might be worried about finding affordable homeowners insurance for your treasure, but there are insurance companies that specialize in policies for older homes.
Your home’s unique insurance needs
You may need a specialized insurance policy because your home has unique insurance needs. Homeowner’s insurance is meant to cover you in the event of a disaster that would require repair or replacement of your existing home. The right insurance policy would restore you to your previous living conditions, but this is more difficult when you have an older home. Why? Simply put, your home was built with materials and with care and craftsmanship that today’s homes aren’t.
Take a look around your older home. Those solid oak wood flooring planks or beautifully carved baseboards are things of the past. They aren’t done in most of today’s homes. Therefore, you need an insurance policy that’s going to restore your solid oak flooring and your beautifully carved baseboards to as close to "original condition" as possible if disaster should strike. That won’t happen with an insurance policy for a modern home. In order to re-create the beauty of your home with materials that are as closely matched as possible to those used decades or even a century or more ago, you need a specialized policy.
Other things to consider
- There may be special provisions with your older home
Your insurance company may only be willing to insure your older home with restrictions if, for example, your home uses outdated electrical fixtures or other utility features that could be a fire risk. For example, if your home’s plumbing, wiring, heating, or electrical systems have not been updated to meet current codes, your insurance company may offer to write your policy – but will exclude coverage for any damage done as a result of these outdated systems’ malfunction. So, for example, if there’s a fire and it started because of faulty wiring, your policy may not cover the damage done by that fire. Your independent agent can explain more about this when you ask about your policy.