Send us the policy. We will read it.

What this is, and what it is not

This page is about a service rather than a product. If you are trying to understand the category itself, what these policies do, how reconstruction cost differs from market value, and why the settlement terms matter, that is set out on high-value home insurance. Read that first if the coverage is new to you.

What we do here is narrower. You already own a home and already carry a policy on it. We read the policy against the house and tell you where the two do not line up. Most people in this position do not need a price. They need somebody to read what they already bought and say whether it does what they assume it does.

The seven things we read, in this order

1. The dwelling figure

We check whether the dwelling limit reflects what it would cost to rebuild the house as built, with its finishes, at current prices. The common tell is a limit that tracks market value, a purchase price, or a tax assessment. A limit that has been carried forward with a flat annual bump for several years is worth checking against current construction costs too.

2. The settlement basis

A limit is only as good as the terms attached to it. We identify whether the policy carries guaranteed replacement cost, extended replacement cost at a stated percentage, or neither, and what conditions apply to it. We also look at how the roof is settled, because roof schedules and actual cash value endorsements are a frequent surprise. These terms vary by carrier, by form, and by state, so what matters is the endorsement on your policy rather than what the carrier is known for generally.

3. Ordinance or law

Code upgrades required during a rebuild are usually not paid from the dwelling limit. We check whether a separate ordinance or law limit exists, how large it is, and whether it is plausible for the age of the house and the jurisdiction it sits in. Older homes and areas with strict energy or seismic requirements are where this tends to matter.

4. Loss of use

We check how the limit is expressed, as a percentage, a flat amount, or a period of time, and whether a time cap sits alongside a dollar cap. Then we ask whether that is realistic for the time a rebuild of this house would actually take and what a comparable rental would cost nearby.

5. Valuables limits

We compare the internal category limits on the policy against what is actually in the house, and flag whether a schedule, a blanket limit, or a separate valuables policy is the better structure. Where items are already scheduled, we look at whether the values are current and whether appraisals are stale.

6. Liability and how the umbrella attaches

We read the liability limit on the home policy against the underlying limit your umbrella requires, because a gap between the two is a real exposure that nobody notices until a claim. We also check whether every residence, vehicle, watercraft, and entity is actually sitting under the umbrella rather than assumed to be.

7. Inspection findings and open conditions

Carriers on these homes inspect, and inspections generate requirements: a roof nearing the end of its life, an electrical panel with a known defect, a missing water shutoff, wildfire mitigation on the property. We look at what was raised, what was satisfied, and what is still open, because open conditions are a common path to a non-renewal notice.

When a review is worth doing

• Before a renewal, or after a premium increase you were not expecting.
• After a non-renewal notice, where timing matters more than usual.
• After a renovation or addition, since the rebuild number changed and the policy may not know it.
• After buying the house, when the dwelling limit was often set from the purchase price under time pressure.
• When title moved to a trust or an entity, which raises a named insured question.
• When nobody has read the whole policy in several years.

When the household is bigger than one house

This review is scoped to a single home and its contents. If the household has a second or seasonal residence, property held in entities, watercraft, collector vehicles, or liability that spans all of it, the right starting point is the private client coverage review, which reads the household as a whole rather than one address. The broader program that review belongs to is described under private client insurance, with state detail for Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

If the household profile is the issue rather than the house, insurance for affluent families covers that side.

What happens with your documents

Declarations pages are used for the review and nothing else. We do not sell or share client information. If you would rather not email a declarations page, say so and we will send a secure upload link instead. And if the policy turns out to be well built, that is what we will tell you.