Is Screen Enclosure covered in my Homeowners Insurance? Palm Bay, Florida -

Welcome back. Today, we’re talking about homeowner's insurance, and one of the things we wanted to talk about was, what does my homeowner's policy cover? And actually, it’s a lot more than most people would think.

That’s right. The homeowner's policy covers several different things. It covers, first of all, the home, which we call in insurance the dwelling. Which means the actual building that you live in, that you reside in, and also, other structures that are attached to it.

One of the things now that used to always come with the policy is your screen enclosure. And ever since 2004, the hurricanes, a lot of companies now have said, “If you want coverage on your screen enclosure, you have to pay extra.” They came out with this after they figured out 57% of all the claims were to screen enclosures. So what they said is, “Hey, if you want screen enclosure you have to pay extra.” Now, what happened was, some companies took the coverage away and sent you a letter and said, "If you want screen coverage, you better let us know." If you didn’t let them know, you may have a policy that doesn’t cover screen enclosure anymore. So, I would suggest that you review that particular item.

Absolutely. And something else that you should always remember is, your insurance policy is intended to compensate you if something bad happens, if you have some type of damage to your home whether it be hurricane or a fire or something to that effect. It’s not designed to compensate you if you simply have a roof that gets old. Sometimes, the roof just gets old. And if it’s ten or twelve years old, it might start to wear a little bit. There might start to be some noticeable signs of damage that has nothing to do with what’s covered under this policy. So, this is not a maintenance contract. This is an insurance policy designed for direct damage. And other things that are covered under the homeowner's policy-- we call that dwelling coverage, that we also call it Coverage A for those of you that are interested. That’s what we call it.

Again, give your agent a call, review your policy, and if you’d like a second opinion, give us a call at the Insurance Center of Central Florida. Our number is below.

Insurance Center of Central Florida
http://www.TheInsuranceCenter.us/
1-888-363-4706