What is Mobile Home Insurance?
Mobile home insurance, also known as manufactured home insurance, is similar to homeowners, however it offers more specialized protections to your factory-built home. With mobile home insurance you can protect additions to your home such as porches, carports, gazebos and garages. Coverage will also include damages to and theft of personal property as well as third-party liability for bodily injury/property damage.
Mobile home insurance can protect against depreciation and betterment of your home with replacement cost, coverage—this gives you the money you need to replace what’s damaged versus what it's worth. Policies for manufactured homes can be designed to fit your needs and your budget with a range of deductible and payment options from which to choose.
Most insurance carriers offer several optional coverages to further protect against unique perils mobile homes face. Some common policy additions include:
- Agreed loss settlement. This coverage will pay the full amount specified in policy to replace your home, should a covered loss make it inhabitable.
- Optional replacement cost. Alternately to covering only what damaged items were worth, this coverage will replace damaged or stolen items with new items at current prices.
- Trip. Trip coverage is added protection for when your home is in transit.
- Vendor's single interest. This specific coverage protects against collision during transit as well as against various types of fraud, including a lienholder's right to repossess your mobile home.
What does Mobile Home Insurance cost?
Although mobile homes are generally less expensive to purchase than a site-built home, the insurance to protect them is just as, if not more, expensive than a site-built home. Mobile homes are more vulnerable to some perils, such as windstorms, fires and theft. There are a number of factors that will impact your mobile home insurance rates:
- Your geographic location.
- The value of your home.
- The age of your home.
- The amount of liability coverage you choose.
- The amount of personal property you choose to cover.
- The deductible you choose.
Contact an experienced agent from The Insurance Shop today to get a guided tour of mobile home insurance and the options available to you.
What are Common Mobile Home Claims?
If you are looking for how to file a claim, please visit our Client Services.
According to TrustedChoice, fire is the number one threat to manufactured homes. Between the years 2005 and 2009, there were 34 mobile home fires a day in the U.S., each one costing an average of $15,000 in damages. The second most costly and damaging peril is wind, be it a tornado, hurricane or windstorm of another kind. The U.S. averages 1,200 tornados a year. The journal, Regional Science and Urban Economics, reports that the annual impact of tornadoes will increase threefold over the next few decades due to "twin forces of increased climate variability and growth in the human-build environment."
How Can I Reduce My Risk?
Just like any site-built home, a mobile home needs routine maintenance and inspections to ensure it stays in good condition, and able to protect against perils such as wind and water. Mobilehomeliving.org has published the following five tips for maintaining your mobile home:
- Make sure your home is level. Professionals recommend checking your home annually to ensure it is level. A mobile home on an uneven surface will amass a number of issues such as doors and windows not shutting properly which not only poses a theft risk but also can create pest problems, heating and air leaks as well as a warped structure over time.
- Skirting ventilation. The mobile home’s skirting, or perimeter enclosure, is more important than most realize. Skirting acts as an insulator for the whole home, it adds protection from pests and it adds curb appeal. Skirting should be secure so animals can’t get in, but have adequate venting so humidity can’t damage the home and mold can’t grow.
- Roof maintenance. If you have a mobile home with a flat roof you will need to reseal or recoat it regularly. Some manuals state this should be done every year.
- Get familiar with your home's plumbing. Mobile home plumbing is a bit different from site-built homes but the same concept applies: the plumbing system has a supply line, a waste or drain line, and ventilation. The pipes have to be able to breathe to work properly and prevent sewage back up or other water damage.
- Learn how to inspect your home for potential issues. While a homeowner inspection should never replace a professional inspector it is smart to do a regular inspection of your home.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the difference between mobile home insurance and modular home insurance?
Modular homes are actually more like site-built homes in that they are constructed on-site onto a foundation like a traditional home. Modular homes are only similar to mobile homes in that they are built in a factory and then sections are transported to the site for construction. Modular homes are most often insured with a traditional homeowners policy.
- Is mobile home insurance required?
Requirements for insurance vary by state. As a rule of thumb, if you finance your home and make payments to a bank or mortgage company, you likely will be required to insure the home to protect the bank’s investment as well as your own.
- Does this insurance cover wildfires?
Many insurance policies cover disasters like wildfires, but in high risk areas such as drought areas or densely forested regions, some policies exclude this coverage. Always check to see what your policy excludes. Contact a personal lines specialist at The Insurance Shop to find out more about your coverage needs.
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