Learn how to protect your mobile home.
With its amazing beaches, scenic mountains, and beautiful wine country, California has it all. However, the Golden State’s beauty comes at a price—reflected in a cost of living index that’s the third highest in the nation.
Californians can make living in their state more affordable by choosing a mobile home. The average cost of a mobile home in the state is $162,000 compared to the average cost of a home exceeding $700,000. However, that doesn’t alleviate the need for mobile home insurance. And when you combine the high cost of living with the potential for property damage, finding the right insurance can be tricky.
Mobile homes are pretty popular in California. The state boasts:
Mobile home insurance is a type of property insurance that protects you from financial loss stemming from owning a mobile home. Policies typically include coverage for:
Look for coverage that protects your property for its replacement cost rather than its actual cash value. You want a policy that can make you whole in a covered loss.
Mobile home insurance in California ranges from $250 to $1,300 annually. The best way to get a sense of where your premium will fall in that range is to request a quote. Some of the factors that determine your costs include your mobile home’s:
The condition and age of your electrical and plumbing systems plays a role, too, as does the value of your personal belonging. Remember your deductible also affects your premium; picking a higher deductible can lower your premium.
You might be eligible for premium discounts if:
California mobile home insurance and traditional homeowners insurance both cover the place that you call home and the belongings you keep inside it. Both types of policies offer replacement cost coverage so that you can get the complete replacement of damaged or destroyed items rather than the depreciated value.
Where these policies differ is in how they approach coverage. Mobile homes are written as HO7 policies. This is because mobile homes are generally not built on a foundation, so they are exposed to some additional risks compared to traditional homes, which are written as HO3 policies. In many cases, mobile homes may be more expensive to insure than a house.
It can be hard to keep mobile homes vs. manufactured homes and insurance straight because the terms are used interchangeably. Here’s a mini-lesson.
Mobile homes and manufactured homes are prefabricated, mobile dwellings designed to be towed on their own chassises. The one critical difference between them is the date they’re built. If your home was built prior to June 15, 1976, it is considered a mobile home. Any home built on or after this date is considered a manufactured home and is regulated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The regulations include safety standards, which is why many insurance carriers won’t insure homes predating June 15, 1976.
Where mobile and manufactured homes are built completely in a factory and then moved to a residential location, modular homes are built in sections. These sections are moved to the site by semi where they are compiled to build the final home. A modular home is insured with a traditional homeowners insurance, not a mobile home insurance policy.
To get a quote, you’ll need your address and the mobile home’s vehicle identification number (usually located on the data plate inside your home or on the steel frame). It helps to have an estimate of how much your personal belongings are worth, too.
If your mobile home has been insured continuously or has safety features, be sure to have these documents ready should you need to provide them for your discounts.
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