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A manufactured home is similar to a regular home. Manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, is much like any other homeowners insurance policy, at least as far as it provides a certain measure of financial protection in the unfortunate event that your home has been badly or even critically damaged. While such a policy is not really required by the law, several mortgage companies, as well as mobile home communities, quite often require that the owners of manufactured and mobile owners purchase insurance coverage for both their protection as well as that of their financial backers. Please call us at 407-344-1228, or email us at info@gofreedomif.com for any insurance needs you may have.

The exact coverage that your mobile home insurance policy will provide is largely dependent on the kind of policy you purchase. However, most policies usually protect your home and personal belongings as well as a certain amount of liability coverage.  For example, a short circuit in your mobile home can cause a conflagration that will engulf the whole area. Your insurance company will pay compensation for the houses right next to yours, but not the whole neighborhood.

Whichever plan you go for, it will always be a great idea to acquire multiple quotes from different service providers due to the tremendous competition prevalent in this sector. This way, you will be able to acquire the best possible rates for manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, at lower than market rates.

• Why Do you Need Manufactured Home Insurance in St. Cloud, FL?

While you are under no legal obligation to compressively insure your manufactured home, in case you have financed your purchase through a mortgage, the mortgage company may want to protect its investment. This is why they might make it a mandatory requirement before they disburse the funds necessary for your purchase. Furthermore, many mobile home parks also require their tenants to have home insurance before they allow anyone to utilize their facilities. They do it to protect themselves from lawsuits. Suppose your home is wrecked in a hurricane. You may sue them for not providing adequate protection or an advanced warning before disaster struck. Secondly, should your home catch fire and the resulting inferno takes the whole park with it, then the manufacturers and mobile homeowners may collectively sue the mobile park’s management company. Without the liability clause in your home insurance coverage, the odds are that the company will almost certainly end up going bankrupt.

Here it is pertinent to note that manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, is certainly more expensive when compared to a regular homeowner’s insurance plan. However, the average cost of the manufactured home currently hovers around the $70,000 figure. This is a massive amount and should the unthinkable happen, you will lose your most expensive asset as well as the roof over your head. Under the circumstances, it makes a whole lot of sense to pay the extra amount in annual premiums rather than risk any damage to your precious manufactured home.

Manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, is so expensive because of the risk associated with this home. Since its foundations are not as deep as a regular house, it is more prone to damage from various natural calamities.

• What Does Manufactured Home Insurance Actually Cover?

Manufactured home insurance coverage is just like your average homeowners' insurance policy (HIO). That is, such a home insurance policy will provide a certain measure of coverage for the insured person's home and belongings. Provided the clause has been included in the contract, it will also include liability protection up to the limit specified in the insurance plan. As a general rule, most manufactured home insurance companies usually allow the policyholder to customize his manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, via one or more endorsements. These endorsements function as a sort of supplement or corollary to the standard home insurance plan being sold by the insurance company.

The main purpose of these supplemental clauses is to provide protection that is not covered by the standard homeowners' insurance plan by increasing the premiums on the standard policy. Some of the important clauses may include water damage and debris removal in case such services are required after a calamitous event.

Here, it is pertinent to note that manufactured homes, in particular, are more prone to fire damage. In fact, the risk is so pervasive that many insurance companies usually exclude fire damage in various high-risk regions and in case they offer such protection, the premium rates are very high. You should do well to check with your service provider before signing on the dotted line.

Furthermore, you should also check in case your plan already covers this peril. Apart from that, the average policyholder also has the option to set his own unique coverage limits. Some of the more important coverage areas for manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, include the following:

• Dwelling Coverage

This sort of coverage effectively provides the funds required to either rebuild or repair the physical building of your home, provided that the damaged has been caused by an already covered peril. For example, in case an earthquake causes a wall in your manufactured home to buckle and collapse, this event will fall under the ‘dwelling coverage’ clause. Some of the other structures of your home that are also covered under this kind of coverage include the deck and the roof since both these structures are attached to your dwelling.

• Personal Property Coverage

Manufactured home insurance also provides a certain measure of protection for your expensive personal belongings in case they are damaged, lost, or stolen. For example, a burglar breaks into your manufactured home and steals your precious tablet. If the personal property coverage is included in your policy, you will be covered and compensated for your loss.

• Liability Protection Clause

This type of coverage protects you in case someone ends up being injured on your property. For example, your neighbor is sitting in his garden when a falling tree branch flies from your property during a gale and hits him. He suffers a severe concussion and has to be hospitalized. If he were to file a suit against you, your insurance company will be liable to cover all legal defense fees and furthermore, it will also pay any damages in case the court determines that you are at fault.

However, it is very important to understand that the insurance company will only offer financial protection as per the specified coverage limit of your insurance policy.

• Other Structures Coverage

Many manufactured home insurance policies also include protection for permanent structures that are ‘not’ permanently attached to the house you live in. These can include garages, tool sheds, greenhouses, etc.

• Additional Living Cost Coverage

If the destruction of your property leaves you homeless and if you have additional living cost coverage, you will be compensated for any additional expenses that you may incur while living somewhere else. For example, if your home is destroyed during a violent snowstorm, then the insurance company will foot your hotel bills till your home has been completely rebuilt and is fit for habitation once again. Here the insurance service provider will only cover you to the extent of your coverage limit.

• Risk Factors for Manufactured Homes

Many insurance companies offer manufactured homeowners a basket of services and coverage options that are in many respects quite similar to insurance options for the traditional home. However, manufactured home insurance almost always costs more than other types of home insurance because of multiple issues. These include the risk for both fire and wind damage (the latter is of particular concern in hurricane-prone areas since a powerful storm can easily uproot a manufactured home and whisk it away). Apart from that, the manufactured home can also turn out to be somewhat more expensive to insure due to the increased risk factor generally associated with theft claims and pipe damage.

• Wind and Fire Damage

Your regular manufactured home (regardless of how modern it may be) is almost always more susceptible to catching fire than the average traditional house. Another reason that increases the cost of manufactured home insurance in St. Could, FL, is the undeniable fact that any fire in a manufactured home can spread very quickly and engulf the whole residence, thereby causing greater damage.

Furthermore, a manufactured home is always lighter than the traditional house and is hence, always more prone to damage from storms or even high winds. This holds particularly true when the house is not strapped to the ground or for that matter, permanently fixed to its foundation.

• Broken Pipes

Insurance companies usually believe that the average manufactured home is lightly insulated, especially when compared to the traditional home. The lower the insulation, the greater the risk of pipes freezing in cold weather. Such frozen pipes can become brittle and break easily. This will result in a lot of damage because of leakage related issues. If the walls, floor or roofing of your manufactured home has been damaged, then your manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, Fl, will cover it, provided you have a ‘broken pipes’ clause in your policy contract.

• Theft Claims

A manufactured house is more susceptible to theft than a traditional home in a well-lit suburban area. This translates into more theft claims, especially since manufactured homes are usually located in mobile trailer home parks or in low-income areas that are easily accessible to thieves. Furthermore, the flimsy structure of many manufactured homes makes it easy for a burglar to break into and steal from these places.

• Lowering Insurance Costs for Manufactured Home

Many providers of manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, offer policies with certain incentives that will help to lower premiums levels, quite drastically. For example, if you were to improve the safety and security of your manufactured home with the help of burglar alarms and smoke detectors, then your insurance policy service provider may opt to give you an insurance policy discount. This is because such devices will drastically decrease the overall risk of insuring your property. And the lesser the risk, the lower the chance of a claim, thereby increasing their ROI considerably. In fact, affixing your manufactured home to one place or putting up a picket security fence all-around your property can also result in a reduction in premiums rates. And if you can afford it, then increasing the overall deductibles on your manufactured home's insurance policy plan will also help to reduce your policy’s annual recurring cost of purchase. 

• ‘No Claim’ Benefits

The ‘no claim’ benefit clause is generally used by many insurance companies to actively discourage their clients from making claims. The common rule of thumb is that the lesser the claims, the lower the annual premium charges for the insurance policy concerned.  When you make a claim, you will automatically lose your ‘no claim’ benefits and will be charged the regular annual premium amount.

• Conclusion

In light of the above, we can safely conclude that manufactured home insurance in St. Cloud, FL, is an absolute must for your non-traditional residence. Furthermore, it is vital that you have at least some form of insurance for your manufactured home since it is more prone to damage from fire, high winds, and theft than its conventional house counterpart.

Please call us at 407-344-1228, or email us at info@gofreedomif.com for any insurance needs you may have.