A Video Explaining the Homeowners Policy & Its Acquisition

The Homeowners Insurance Policy HandbookShow more

Of all insurance acquired in the United States, the most common is the homeowners policy and its sister the tenant’s policy that covers everything a homeowners policy covers but the structure.

Homeowners insurance is nothing more than a contract between a person seeking insurance and an insurer who promises to protect the insured against the risks of loss to certain described property or liability to third parties. The insurer can be set up as a stock insurance corporation, a mutual insurance company, an interinsurance exchange or a syndicate of insurers writing through an insurance market place like Lloyd’s, London. The person insured can be an individual, a corporation, a partnership, a limited liability company, a limited liability partnership, a joint venture or any other legal entity.

Homeowners insurance is obtained by the person or entity seeking insurance (the insured) making contact with the insurer as a prospective insured seeking insurance. The contact can be direct to the insurer, or by contact through the services of an agent or a broker.

The homeowners policy is a specialized policy of insurance that protects the homeowner from certain risks of loss to the real and personal property at the home, the exposure the insured faces for injury to a household employee, and the exposure the insured faces to liability for bodily injury or property damage caused to third parties.

The insurer promises to indemnify the person or persons insured if the dwelling or contents are damaged by an identified cause of loss.

The insured, on the other hand, promises to pay a premium and fulfill the conditions of the policy.

There are three ways a prospective insured may obtain a policy of insurance:

Contact with an insurance agent.

Contact with an insurance broker.
Contact with a direct writing insurer.
© 2021 – Barry Zalma

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 52 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and zalma@zalma.com.

Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.

Over the last 53 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma; Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ Read posts from Barry Zalma at https://parler.com/profile/Zalma/posts; and Read last two issues of ZIFL here.