More on Home Insurance
If you own a historic home, homeowners insurance is typically going to cost more than if your home was newer. If insurance is unaffordable or your historic home is deemed too high risk to insure, you have a few options.
Published October 12, 2020
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If you own a historic home, you know they come with uniqueness, character, and quirks. Although you may love your home for those very reasons, its novelty and vintage features can make it difficult to cover with standard homeowners insurance.
Whether you bought your dream historic home to settle down or you intend to renovate the property and flip it, you’ll need to protect it with homeowners insurance. Historic homes can be more expensive and trickier to insure than newer homes because insurance companies see them as high risk due to their older age and pricier building materials.
If you have a historic home, you may be able to find homeowners insurance through the National Trust Insurance Services, a program created to help historic homeowners find property insurance for their specific needs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Historic homeowners insurance is typically more expensive than standard coverage
Historic homes are considered high risk because their older materials and original architecture are more expensive to restore and rebuild
You can find speciality insurers through the National Trust Insurance Services
Everyone has their own definition of what is and isn’t historic, but in order to be considered an officially designated historic home or site, your home must meet certain criteria established by the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places. The National Register of Historic Places is a national program dedicated to preserving historical properties across the U.S. Additionally, states and municipalities can designate homes or neighborhoods as historic.
When evaluating your property, the National Register will consider three areas:
Homes that qualify as historic landmarks or buildings often receive perks like tax breaks and low-interest loans. In return, you as the homeowner are responsible for preserving and protecting the home’s integrity and heritage.
That historic preservation can result in pretty expensive rates from insurance companies. For example, if one of the home’s window frames is damaged in a break-in, you may be required to use similar materials in order to replicate the original style of the home. Historic homes have old and rare architectural stylings that cost more to rebuild, which is why homeowners insurance is generally more expensive for historic and older homes.
A couple of reasons historic homes are more expensive to insure than modern homes is because they generally cost more to rebuild and often pose a greater liability risk because of how they’re constructed. Your home’s replacement cost, not its market value, is one of the biggest factors that insurers consider when determining your rates. It’s possible that your home’s replacement cost, or insured value, will be way higher than the amount you bought it for.
For example, if you own a farm house that dates back to the early 1900s, it’s likely constructed with older, rarer, and more expensive materials that aren’t common in modern homebuilding. Older materials, like plaster walls or wooden beams, are more expensive and potentially not up to code. Whereas more modern materials, like drywall and sheetrock, are generally less expensive and safer to work with. If your home is built with materials that are now considered dangerous, like aluminum wiring, your rates may also be higher, and you may even be required to replace it with copper wiring.
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In order to meet the underwriting criteria for standard homeowners insurance, you may be required to make certain updates to your home, such as replacing the electrical work or plumbing. Additionally, since historic homes are more expensive to rebuild, your options may be limited to specialized, high-value home insurance companies.
Here are some other tips you should consider when getting homeowners insurance for your historic home:
Consider finding specialized historic homeowners insurance through the National Trust Insurance Services (NTIS), an organization that helps homeowners find carriers that specialize in covering the unique risks associated with older homes. The NTIS works with different insurance companies and can connect you with the right carrier for your historic home’s needs.
Certain insurance companies specialize in covering high-value homes, including historic houses. Below are two high-value insurance companies that you may want to consider if they’re available in your area.
An HO-8 policy, also called modified coverage insurance, is a type of homeowners insurance designed for older homes or homes with a rebuild cost that is higher than its market value.
HO-8 policies are geared towards protecting older homes that don’t meet the standard for regular homeowners insurance coverage. Unlike a standard homeowners insurance policy, HO-8 policies don’t require four-point inspections, and you may not have to update details of your home, like your old pipes or wiring, in order to qualify for coverage.
However, HO-8s are actual cash value policies, which means you’re only be reimbursed the depreciated value of the property in the event of a loss.
Extended replacement cost coverage is a coverage add-on that increases your dwelling coverage limits an additional 25%-50% if the cost to rebuild your home ends up being higher than your policy limit.
Guaranteed replacement coverage is similar to extended replacement cost, but it reimburses you for the full amount rebuild costs, regardless of the price. That means if your home is completely destroyed, the insurance company would pay the full amount that it will cost to rebuild your home from the ground up.
Although homeowners insurance is typically more expensive for historic homes, you can still find ways to lower your premiums. Your insurer may lower your rates if you make slight modern modifications to your home, like replacing your pipes or wiring. You can also consider raising your deductible.
Most insurance companies offer a variety of homeowners insurance discounts, including:
Kara McGinley
Property and Casualty Insurance Expert
Expertise
Kara McGinley is an insurance editor at Policygenius, specializing in home, auto and renters insurance. She previously worked as a freelance writer and copywriter, and has been writing about insurance since 2019. Kara is an expert at making complicated topics like property insurance simple to understand. Her work can be found in Teen Vogue, The Culture Crush, and more.
Education
Kara has a B.A. in English from East Carolina University.
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