How to Read Your Homeowners Declarations Page

Coverage A — Dwelling

The limit on the structure itself: the house, attached garage, and built-in systems. This figure should reflect the cost to rebuild, which is not the same as market value and is not the purchase price — it excludes the land and reflects local construction costs.

Coverage A is also the base for several other numbers on the page. Contents, other structures, and additional living expenses are frequently expressed as percentages of it, and percentage-based wind or hurricane deductibles are calculated against it. A Coverage A figure that has not been revisited in several years tends to pull those derived numbers down with it.

Coverage B — Other structures

Detached structures: a standalone garage, shed, fence, gazebo, or detached workshop. Commonly set at 10% of Coverage A by default. Properties with a substantial outbuilding — a barn, a converted studio, a large detached garage — frequently need this raised above the default.

Coverage C — Personal property

The contents limit: furniture, electronics, clothing, and everything else that is not part of the structure. Typically set at 50% to 70% of Coverage A. This is the line that a home inventory speaks to directly.

Two things to check here rather than assume. First, whether contents settle at replacement cost or actual cash value — the difference can be substantial and is sometimes shown as an endorsement rather than on this line. Second, the category sub-limits, which usually appear in a separate block or in the policy form rather than on the declarations page itself.

Coverage D — Loss of use, and Coverages E and F

Coverage D is additional living expenses: the cost of living elsewhere while the home is uninhabitable. Usually 20% to 30% of Coverage A, sometimes with a separate time limit that does not appear on the declarations page.

Coverage E is personal liability, covering bodily injury or property damage to others for which the household is legally responsible. Coverage F is medical payments to others — a smaller no-fault amount, commonly $1,000 to $5,000, for injuries on the property regardless of liability.

The deductible block

Most pages list a standard all-perils deductible as a flat dollar amount, and then separately list any percentage deductibles that apply to specific perils — hurricane, named storm, windstorm and hail, or earthquake, depending on the region.

Percentage deductibles are the line most often misread. A 2% hurricane deductible on $450,000 of dwelling coverage is $9,000, not 2% of the claim, and it applies before the insurer pays anything. Converting each percentage on the page into a dollar figure once, in advance, is a five-minute exercise that avoids a significant surprise.

Endorsements and forms

Usually the densest block on the page: a list of form numbers and endorsement codes. These are the modifications to the base policy, and they are where scheduled personal property, water backup coverage, replacement-cost contents, ordinance-or-law coverage, and various exclusions live.

The codes are not self-explanatory, and they matter. Any scheduled item — a ring, a piece of art, a collection — appears here with its declared value. If a scheduled item was added and does not appear, that is worth resolving before there is a reason to rely on it.