Regardless of whether you have a home in the Capital City, Helena or the larger cities of Missoula, Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls or Butte it is vital that you figure out a comprehensive Montana Home Insurance policy that properly covers your home.
The average cost of a home in Billings, Montana was $252,372 in Dec 2011, whilst the average Montana Home Insurance cost $721 according to government statistics. So, although homeowners insurance may seem expensive, the fact is that it is still something that you absolutely MUST buy in order to protect the large investment that you have made in your home.
Mortgage companies will usually require their lenders to take out a home owners insurance policy so that they are protected (the bank after all probably owns the vast majority of the home when you first start off with repayments!)
But it is still in your interests to take proper care over this process because most home insurance policies in Montana will protect not only the building itself from unforeseen circumstances, but will also protect all of the possessions and personal property that you have accumulated over the years.
One important caveat to consider is that not all home insurance is created equal, and some policies will cover you for items that others exclude. This can often get overlooked when you are hunting around online, looking at price comparison sites and immediately opting for the lowest price.
At the time this seems like the sensible thing to do, because many people think about insurance in the same way that they view commodity items like tea or coffee. Namely that they figure that there cannot be much difference between the policies, and so the only differentiating item is the price.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is certainly true that all Montana Home Insurance companies offer similar categories of cover, but within those there can be some marked differences.
You should pay particular attention both to the exclusions section on the policies, and on the ‘Valuables’ section.
In terms of exclusions you will notice that most policies will not cover you for floods, and so for example under most home policies, the floods in Yellowstone County in December 2011 would NOT be covered.
Clearly these can be catastrophic events, and so getting optional Flood Insurance protection is often a very sensible thing to do.
You may also want to get extra endorsements on your Montana Home Insurance Plan to cover drain backups or sewerage problems, as most policies do NOT cover these.
With regard to valuables, you should check how much cover that you have for items like laptops and computers, because often this is less than you may think. And also double check that your laptop is actually covered for when you are away from home, as clearly this is quite a likely scenario, and not all policies cover this.
Another area that people who look after other people’s children in their homes, or offer some kind of day-care facility in return for payment (no matter how casual it may be), is to get an endorsement (insurance speak for adding to your policy) of day-care coverage.
This covers you in the event that something unforeseen happens to the children, which otherwise it wouldn’t, because if you were being paid it would be classed as operating a business.
The bottom line is that whilst you can get a good Montana Home Insurance Policy that it isn’t as simple as “point, click and pay”, and you do actually need to read any policy thoroughly before finally committing to it.
