What Are the Types of Perils Covered by Home Insurance?
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Home insurance perils are events that result in damage to or the loss of your property for which your homeowners insurance company will reimburse you to help you cover the costs of repairs, replacements or other related expenses. Not all losses are covered by insurance, but covered perils generally include sudden and unpredictable sources of damage, such as fire and theft.
Read below for more information on the types of perils that are commonly covered by — or excluded from — standard homeowners insurance policies.
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Key Takeaways
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What Is a Homeowners Insurance Peril?
A home insurance peril is a destructive event that impacts your home or belongings, potentially making you eligible for an insurance payout. Keep in mind that the purpose of homeowners insurance is to provide financial protection against sudden and accidental losses. As a result, damage that occurs slowly over time — such as normal wear and tear — does not qualify as a covered homeowners insurance peril.
Perils Covered by Home Insurance
While coverage can vary depending on the type of policy you have, all home insurance policies should generally cover the following 10 perils:[1]
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Peril |
Example |
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Fire or lightning |
A wildfire burns down your house |
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Chunks of hail crash through and break several of your home’s windows |
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Explosion |
Your gas grill explodes and triggers a fire |
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Riot or civil commotion |
Rioters flip over your car, damaging your laptop and other valuable items inside of the car in the process |
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Damage by vehicle |
A drowsy driver accidentally drives through your backyard fence and into the back of your home |
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Damage by aircraft |
A helicopter crashes into and destroys a shed on your property |
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Smoke |
Smoke gets into your vents and causes the metal to erode |
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Vandalism or malicious mischief |
Teenagers egg your house and ruin a large part of the siding |
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Theft |
An intruder breaks your door down and steals your TV |
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Volcanic eruptions |
Lava flows burn your front porch |
The majority of policies also cover an additional six perils:[2]
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Peril |
Example |
|---|---|
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Falling objects |
A large tree branch falls through your garage during a windstorm |
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Weight of ice, sleet or snow |
Snow builds up on your roof during a winter storm, causing it to cave in |
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Water/steam discharge from home systems and appliances |
Your living room furniture is ruined after your sprinkler system malfunctions and goes off inadvertently |
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Sudden/accidental tearing, cracking, burning or bulging of home systems |
Excessive heat from your HVAC system burns a nearby wall |
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Freezing of home systems |
Standing water freezes in your plumbing pipes, causing the pipes to burst and flood your basement |
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Sudden/accidental power surges |
An artificially generated electric current damages your electronics by overloading their circuit boards |
Types of Home Insurance Perils
Homeowners insurance policies can cover your property on a named peril or open peril basis — or they may use a combination of both. Named peril policies only cover damage from perils that are explicitly mentioned in the policy documents. Most named peril policies cover all 16 of the perils listed in the previous section, though some of them only cover the first 10.
Conversely, open peril policies — also known as all-risk policies — cover every possible source of damage to your home except for those that are explicitly named as exclusions in the policy documents. Standard homeowners policies cover your home on an open peril basis and your belongings on a named peril basis. However, you may be able to upgrade to open peril coverage for everything by paying a higher premium.
What Types of Home Insurance Cover Perils?
The following table provides an overview of the eight types of home insurance, which vary when it comes to how many perils they cover and what types of properties they cover.[3]
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Type |
Description |
|---|---|
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Basic coverage that only protects your home and belongings against 10 named perils |
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Broader coverage that protects your home and belongings against all 16 named perils |
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Standard policy that offers dwelling coverage on an open peril basis and personal property coverage on a named peril basis |
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Renters insurance |
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Comprehensive coverage that offers dwelling and personal property insurance on an open peril basis, plus higher coverage limits for expensive items |
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Condo insurance |
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Coverage for mobile homes |
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Named peril coverage that insures old and historic homes at their actual cash value (ACV) rather than their replacement cost value (RCV) |
The vast majority of homeowners opt for HO-3 insurance — in 2021, nearly 80% of insured owner-occupied houses were covered by an HO-3 policy.[4] Meanwhile, HO-1 coverage is the least popular home insurance policy form, and many insurance carriers have discontinued HO-1 insurance sales.[5]
Perils That Aren’t Covered by Homeowners Insurance
Even if you opt for open peril coverage, most home insurance policies exclude coverage for the perils listed below. This means your insurer will deny any claims related to these perils, and you’ll have to cover your losses out of pocket.
- Earthquakes, sinkholes, landslides, mudslides and other ground movements
- Flooding from high tides, overflowing rivers and other external water sources (note: floods caused by internal sources — like burst pipes or leaking appliances — are usually covered)
- Intentional losses
- Neglect or poor maintenance
- Mold
- Pests and infestations
- Government confiscation or condemnation of property
- Failure to meet local building codes
- War and nuclear hazards
- Property damage related to the operation of a home-based business
What Type of Coverage Do I Need for Excluded Perils?
To receive coverage for sudden and accidental damage that your basic home insurance policy excludes from coverage, you can buy a separate insurance policy or an add-on to your existing homeowners policy. Your location may determine whether you need to purchase extra coverage for excluded perils. For example, if you live in a high-risk flood zone, you may need to buy flood insurance through a private carrier or the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Depending on where you live, your insurance company may be required to offer you optional policies to account for significant risks your standard policy won’t cover. For example, insurance providers in California must offer earthquake insurance to their customers, while insurers in Florida and Tennessee must offer sinkhole insurance.[6][7]
For more precisely tailored coverage, you may want to consider difference in conditions (DIC) insurance. DIC policies are designed to supplement basic homeowners insurance or Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan policies, so you may be able to customize your DIC insurance to cover any sudden perils that aren’t covered by your primary insurance policy.
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Dylan Tate is an insurance content expert for SmartFinancial with over 300 articles about home, auto, business, health and life insurance under his belt. He has over nine years of experience writing for online publications, primarily about gaming and esports. In the process, he has become an expert in search engine optimization, news reporting, feature writing and copy editing.
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