If you are looking for a Texas Homeowners Insurance Comparison online, you will likely be overwhelmed by the different types of coverage available in the market today. HOA policies, HOA Plus or Enhanced policies, HOB, HOC, HO3, Company Specific policies and many more. Gone is the day of getting a simple homeowner’s insurance quote and coverage. How can the normal person keep up with all of this and not be an expert? It can be real tough. Especially, when you bring in the salesman that tells you their policy is the very best, only because it’s all they offer!
In this article, I will explain the various coverage types available and the primary benefits and drawbacks to most of the policies available in Texas. This will give you enough information for you to make an informed decision on what home coverage will be the best value for you and your family.
I will begin by explaining some the coverage available on the Texas Homeowners Insurance Policy. We will discuss many of the various policy types now available in Texas, the coverage within those policies and address commonly asked questions relating to the Texas Homeowners Insurance Policy. Let’s start with a brief history of the Texas Homeowners Insurance Policy.
For many years, home owners insurance policy coverage and rates were standardized in Texas. They had a HOA Policy form, a HOB Policy form and a HOC policy form and that was it. Please note that this was in Texas only. The other 49 states had what they called an ISO Form or a Company Specific Form. Us Texans have to be different, you know?
The HOA policy was a very limited form of coverage and the premium was cheap. It is a named peril policy that only covered major losses. Named peril coverage means; it will only cover the property for damage that occurs as a result of something specifically named in the policy. Such as, fire, lightning, wind or hail. This policy was often referred to as a Fire Policy, because not much else was covered. No replacement cost, no water damage, just very basic coverage. This insurance policy was normally written on low value and older homes in poor condition.
The HOB policy was the most common policy written in Texas. It was also known as the Broad Form. Great coverage, all risk on the dwelling (unless excluded), broad named perils on the contents, included replacement cost coverage, water damage, mold coverage, very good coverage.
The HOC policy was even broader, in that it was all risk coverage on the dwelling and contents and had all the other coverage that was available on the HOB policy. This was typically written on high value homes. It didn’t really add much practical coverage and, as a result, very few companies offered it and very few people had it.
So, at the time, most people had the HOB policy and could call around and get home insurance quote estimates and coverage comparisons easily. Ah, the good old days…..
Then a few years ago a thing called “mold” came up and the Texas home insurance industry was turned upside down. Companies began to raise rates, limit coverage and even completely pull out of the State of Texas for homeowners insurance. The policy was never intended to cover mold related damage and even had an exclusion in the policy for mold, but a court ruling found that the policy should pay for mold related damage if it was a consequential loss resulting from another covered peril. (Water Damage).
After a short period of time, the Texas Department of Insurance agreed to allow companies to start offering other homeowners insurance policies in Texas that would limit and/or exclude mold damage.
As a result, we now have many different Homeowners Insurance policy types available. As mentioned above, policies now available are: HOA, HOA Plus, HOA Enhanced, HOB, HOB Modified, HO3, HO3 Modified, Company Specific Forms and many variations of these. Getting an apples for apples comparison is now quite difficult. Most agents only offer one or two of these policy types and of course they will insist that whatever they offer is the best and that everything else stinks. Also many agents now use these different policy types to confuse consumers and “muddy the water” to try to scare their clients into keeping their current insurance with them. Not a good situation. Fortunately, most agents do not use these unethical tactics.
The good news is that most of these policies offer good coverage and there are only subtle differences in coverage that should be based on the insured’s preference.
The following links will provide you with additional details on each of these policies:
Texas Home Insurance – HOA, HOA Plus and HOA Enhanced Policies
Texas Homeowners Insurance Coverage- HOB Policies
Homeowners Insurance Coverage in Texas – HO-3 Policies and Company Specific Forms
I truly hope that you find this information to be beneficial and that it assists you in your efforts in find the best homeowners insurance available in Texas. Now more than ever it is critical to deal with an experienced agent that has a full understanding of all of these different policy types, represents the best companies with top financial ratings and will work with you to find the best fit for your needs.
