These Home Insurance Blind Spots Threaten Your Equity, If You Ignore Them

If you have home insurance, you might rightfully assume that if your house gets damaged, insurance will pay to fix it.Unfortunately, what your policy actually pays for could look very different from what you expect.A loss can be covered but still leave you with thousands of dollars to pay yourself because of a deductible, coverage limit, or even the age of your roof. Even worse, some disasters may not be covered at all.“A common misconception is that if a loss is covered, every related cost will automatically be paid without limitation,” says Greg Pannhausen, head of property product development at Farmers Insurance. “In reality, coverage is generally subject to policy limits, deductibles, and other terms and conditions.”With that in mind, here are five home insurance blind spots worth checking now—before you find out about them the hard way.Blindspot 1: Your coverage may be outdatedMany people choose a dwelling coverage limit for their policies, and then keep it the same for many years. But did you know this one small oversight could leave you underinsured?“Reconstruction costs can change over time because of renovations, inflation, and fluctuations in labor and material costs,” P...