Living in a historic home can be an excellent investment as well as an exciting way to own a piece of history. Historic homes across Florida often allow homeowners to take advantage of lower interest loans as well as receive tax breaks. When purchasing a home there might be some extra expenses you may not have considered, especially when it comes to acquiring insurance. Insuring a historic home is very different from injuring a brand-new home or a home that was built in the last 20 years.
The title of a historic home for insurance properties often comes down to two categories. There are the homes that were built before the 1900’s and homes that were built before 1945. Most properties need to be at least 50 years or older to qualify for this registration.
The integrity of the home needs to be properly maintained and the significance of the property will also play into the historical title. If your property meets all of the required criteria for the state and receives the designation of a historical landmark, this means that you will have a number of other considerations.
Historic home purchases can be an excellent investment as you’ll receive an ongoing tax benefit for keeping up the home and its significance.
With insurance on a historic home, an insurance policyholder will need to realize that there is no correlation between the purchase price and the market value of a historical home. The cost of restoring and rebuilding a historic home usually costs significantly more than the market value of the home.This could mean that your replacement coverage requires a larger premium.
Replacement of materials in a historical home is much more expensive as your insurer could be responsible for finding items like specialty lumber, flooring, molding and more. Your fixtures may be made out of brass and the doors could be of a special construction as well. An insurance company will often send out a highly trained appraiser to calculate the cost of rebuilding a historic home.
Some of the best types of coverage for historic home insurance policies are using guaranteed replacement cost coverage. This will protect the insurer for the entire cost of the rebuild of the home and make sure that all historically significant and unique features will be brought back to their original state.
You could also consider extended replacement cost which is less expensive and carries a guarantee that the insurer will pay out reasonable additional costs to rebuild the home with the added expense of the building materials. This type of coverage does have a percentage cap whereas guaranteed replacement cost coverage does not.
Most historic homeowners consider themselves “stewards of history” and it is important to them that their insurance allows them to repair any damage with historically accurate or at least similar materials.
Owning a historic house comes with a special responsibility to protect its heritage. The right insurance coverage will provide peace of mind for an owner.
If you are interested in determining the best type of historic home coverage for your home, contact a qualified insurance attorney today. We can help you navigate the process of finding the right insurance for your home.
This post was written by Kelly-Ann Jenkins of Jenkins Law P.L. Kelly-Ann is an St Petersburg Personal Injury Attorney She focuses on personal injury, car accidents, and bicyclist injury. The information on this site is not intended to and does not offer legal advice, legal recommendations or legal representation on any matter. Hiring an attorney is an important decision, which should not be based on advertising. You need to consult an attorney for legal advice regarding your individual situation.
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