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The top reasons why homeowners’ insurance policies are often voided include;

Deliberate Damage

One common occurrence that many homeowners’ insurance companies regularly deal with is property being deliberately damage, and then having claims filed on the property. This is also commonly seen in car insurance claims, but will almost always result in termination of your policy. Deliberately damaging property and then attempting to file an insurance claim is fraud, and is not taken lightly by insurance companies. Those that are able to convince insurance companies to payout for deliberately damaged property will often feel the legal ramifications at a later date if their actions are discovered.

Lack of Receipts for Claimed Items

Many homeowners’ insurance policies are also going to cover items within the home. If your property is damaged, it is important that you have receipts for the items that you are looking to claim. For insurance purposes, as well as accounting purposes, you should save receipts for medium to large purchases that you may someday want to claim in order to avoid having your policy voided.

Illegitimate Flood or Fire

When a house is flooded or suffers fire damage, experts are called in to evaluate the cause of the fire and flood. Often times these will be attributed to faulty wiring or plumbing, which is covered under most homeowners’ insurance plans. However, if the experts called in to analyze the situation are unable to determine the cause of the fire or flood, or believe that the cause is nefarious, the insurance company may feel compelled to void the policy.

High Number of Claims

Policies that have an unusually high number of claims throughout their lifetime often come under increased scrutiny from insurance companies. Although none of the claims may appear to be fraudulent, the unusually high number of claims can suggest negligence on the part of the home owner. Insurance companies reserve the right to void policies with an unusually high number of claims, and often do so when it is cutting into their bottom line.

Changes in Property

Another reason why many homeowners’ insurance claims are often voided includes undocumented changes to the property. If you added several extra rooms to your home and did not inform the insurance company, then attempt to file a claim for those rooms being damaged, the insurance company may choose to avoid your claim on the basis of not being informed of changes in the property that they are insuring.

There are many reasons why an insurance company may decide to avoid a claim. As a general rule of thumb, you should save receipts, document and inform them of changes in the property that they are covering, and also document any damage that your property incurs over the lifetime of the policy.

Contributing Writer Larry Smith is an insurance specialist  who works for HomeownersInsurance.net.

You don’t have to live in Tornado Alley to have your life blown away. There are many more pitfalls today’s property owners have to evade somehow. Can you afford NOT to understand them all? You may also find that revisiting your homeowner’s policy saves you premiums, at a time when every penny can count too.

Let’s take a look at ten really good reasons you may want to look over your homeowner’s insurance policy.

1. Put simply, you simply have more things to ensure than you did before. The attic is full, the garage overflowing, and many of the new purchases may, or may not, be covered for all eventualities. Also, the value of your home’s contents has in all liklihood, gone up. Add to this the fact that the entire policy payout may not be enough to cover new items, the higher total value of your possessions and even the home, and you have a problem. Conversely, your situation may have changed in the opposite direction. Maybe the kids moved out, you decided to simplify, you simply do not need as much coverage as before. Whichever situation exists, you may be vulnerable to losing lots of money. The best way to determine this is with an inventory of your home, and an evaluation of your existing coverage.
2. You say you just remodeled? Just adding a new bath or kitchen upgrade impacts the value of your home significantly. Take today’s cost of remodeling, materials, and so on, and your homeowner’s insurance could be thousands off where replacements are concerned.
3. Rebuilding costs are up. The market value of your home is sometimes drastically different from the cost you will incur to replace it. The “real value” of the property is what you will be paying for if you have to rebuild, not the land and 2 x 4′s bought back when. This simply concept escapes many homeowners when they think about buying insurance, and especially after they have had insurance for a long time.
4. You’ve installed safety devices. Most insurance companies offer discounts when you add alarms, sprinklers, and other devices that protect your home.
5. Big ticket items like jewelry or even hi end electronics are sometimes excluded in some policies. Even if a policy has provisions for you getting a windfall and buying your spouse the crown jewels, the value of those gems will be lost if you don’t modify your insurance.
6. So you live in a flood or earthquake zone? Well, typical homeowner’s policies do not cover floods. The lightning or fire damage from some local calamity may be remedied, only to find out that all the water damage from the river overflowing is not. Flood insurance is available through some governments, but owners and renters are well advised to seek the advice of their independent agent here.
7. Your office is at home. Some policies have limitations as to whether or not you can have an office in your home. This is something you need to check out so you don’t get caught losing everything over a technicality. Go over your policy for any exclusions.
8. Changing insurance carriers. Homeowners can save a lot of money sometimes by “shopping” insurance carriers. Just combining auto, home and other coverage used to be the biggest savings here, but companies like Aviva, in Europe and the UK, offer incentives like discounts for buying online, and so on.
9. Asset protection. Most homeowners never think of their home as an asset really, but their opponent’s lawyer in a personal injury or other lawsuit may. The structural protection you need is one thing, bodily injury or property damage if someone gets injured in your back yard, is totally another. Are you covered? Can you bet your life you are, right now? You see the point we hope.  This press release via MarketWatch reveals some home economics tips you can use.
10. Home sweet, old home. Basic homeowner’s policies do not cover damage from that occur because of old pipes or symptoms some old homes experience. If you already own an older home, you have already experienced the idiosyncrasies here. Special policy add-on can help you defer loses you might otherwise incurred from owning that charming Victorian.