Do You Still Need Home Insurance if Your Home is Paid Off?

Paying off your home is no easy feat and a huge accomplishment. It takes a huge financial burden off of your shoulders and makes some homeowners think that they no longer need insurance. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.

Home insurance is still important even once your home is paid off. This is because you can still stand to face heavy financial loss in case of an accident or natural disaster.

Is Home Insurance Required for Paid Off Homes?

While lenders generally require homeowners to carry home insurance, they may no longer have a requirement if the home is paid off. States don’t typically require home insurance, and this does not change once a home is paid for.

Legal requirements don’t offset safety, however. If you can easily pay the replacement cost value of your home out of pocket, only then could you perhaps go without insurance. Even this is risky when it comes to lawsuits in case someone is injured at your home.

What Home Insurance Coverage Should You Carry?

In general, it’s recommended that homeowners carry at least 80% of their home’s total replacement cost value in home insurance. This ensures that you will be covered in case the home is destroyed due to a covered natural disaster.

The basic coverages under a home insurance policy include:

Dwelling coverage provides compensation if the physical home and its attached structures are damaged due to fire, wind, hail, lightning, smoke, explosions, theft, vandalism and more.
Personal Belongings coverage provides compensation for loss of or damage to personal items from the same perils as covered under dwelling damage.
Liability insurance covers expenses relating to bodily injury or property damage someone else may suffer while on the insured property.
Additional Living Expenses cover costs related to temporarily moving while the home is being rebuilt or repaired after a disaster.

Even if you decide to forgo dwelling and personal belongings coverage, liability insurance is still crucial and has little to do with the physical home. Say your child has a friend over and they’re playing in the backyard while you watch from the patio. They’re running around and your child’s friend trips over your dog, who was sleeping in the grass. Startled, the dog whips around and bites the child.

The expenses of the child’s medical bills as well as a possible lawsuit from the child’s parents can fall on your pocket without proper liability insurance.

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