Own my house out right, do I need home owner's insurance?

[txranger]

I own my home, which is fully paid off and I currently do not have home owner's insurance. A friend suggested it is not wise to not have insurance in case of e.g. a massive fire-->burning neighbors house down or personal injury and they can come after my property as well as personal bank accounts etc?

Is this accurate? What would you recommend?

[MrSal]

yes it is right...

Houses usually are big assets to everyone and comprise most of one's assets. It's silly not to have insurance... at the very least having insurance for something catastrophic.

While having insurance with 250$ deductible is silly, having insurance to avoid a loss of 200k+ is wise... its not that expensive.

I pay 200 dollars/year on my homeowners... I have a 7500$ deductible though... 7500 dollar loss I can handle it just fine... a 250k loss not so much...

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

I had $60,000 in damage to a house a few years ago. Do you have that sitting around?

[Rural]

Yes.

[Cranky]

You need liability, in case someone falls down and gets hurt on your property, and it's not easy to find that without a bigger policy.

My mom tried that after homeowner's insurance became so expensive in Florida, and had no luck.

[Villanelle]

To me, the security is worth it.  Homeowners' insurance is fairly inexpensive, especially if you go for a very high deductible. Call around and get a few quotes for as high deductible as they'll give you, and you may find that the peace of mind if worth the fairly low premiums.

[Rubic]

You need liability, in case someone falls down and gets hurt on your property, and it's not easy to find that without a bigger policy.

+1

You really don't want to deal with a liability issue without the benefit of an
insurance company, which handles these kind of claims (frivolous and
otherwise) every day.  Just opt for a high deductible to lower your premiums.

[txranger]

I had $60,000 in damage to a house a few years ago. Do you have that sitting around?

I do, of course it will not be ideal to spend it as such.  His point was that attorneys can come after my other assets because I'm a high income earner.

[Khaetra]

I own my home outright as well and wouldn't go without it, especially the liability part.  While it would be nice to not have to pay that yearly, I would cry if I had to actually replace the whole house plus everything inside.  I pay for piece of mind.

[Spork]

We own outright and have home owners insurance (with fairly high deductibles) as well as umbrella insurance.  Umbrella will likely put requirements on your home owner's policy for the amount liability you carry.

[lizzzi]

I also have, and have had for years, a paid off house. Definitely carry homeowners--for all the reasons stated above, it is foolish not to have it. Carry a high deductible.

[Zaga]

We own outright, a few years ago when cutting down a tree it fell entirely the wrong way and knocked down a telephone poll.  That was super expensive to replace, insurance covered it all, even though it was our fault. 

Earlier this month we had a micro-burst come through and take down 17 trees in about 2 minutes.  None hit the house and our roof is fine, but if the wind had been just a little bit different we could have lost large chunks of the house.

No way would I go without homeowners insurance!

[Another Reader]

Get a high deductible homeowner's insurance policy with the maximum liability.  If you have a lot of other assets or are high income, look into an umbrella liability policy as well.  Very cheap insurance to protect your assets and your future earnings.

[pbkmaine]

Get a high deductible homeowner's insurance policy with the maximum liability.  If you have a lot of other assets or are high income, look into an umbrella liability policy as well.  Very cheap insurance to protect your assets and your future earnings.

This.

[teen persuasion]

Just this spring a wind storm brought a tree down on a coworker's home.  Completely caved in the kitchen roof, walls were bowed out.  Her insurance company immediately assigned a Catastrophe team to help her deal with arranging short term weather shielding, tree removal, hiring contractors, renting another place during renovations, etc.  I'm seriously impressed, and need to find out her insurance company's name.

 For contrast, one of DH's coworkers also had roof damage from the same storm (miles away), and he only got his roof repaired a week ago!  He was not dawdling by choice, from what I understand, that's just the earliest they got around to his roof.