How much does mobile home insurance cost?

If you live in a mobile home, you need mobile home insurance.

This type of homeowners insurance covers physical damage to the mobile home itself and personal property within your home. It also includes personal liability coverage and additional expenses coverage if damage causes your mobile home to become uninhabitable.

Here’s what you need to know about mobile home insurance and how much it costs.

• What is mobile home insurance?
• What’s the difference between a mobile home and a manufactured home?
• What does mobile home insurance cover?
• What doesn’t a mobile home insurance policy cover?
• How much does an average mobile home insurance policy cost?
• Factors that determine the cost of mobile home insurance
• Mobile home insurance FAQs

What is mobile home insurance?

Mobile home insurance is a lot like traditional homeowners insurance. It covers damage to your mobile home, your personal belongings, and liability claims if someone else is injured on your property. It’ll also help pay for additional expenses (like hotel and laundry costs) if you have to temporarily relocate, and will pay for medical expenses if someone injures themselves on your property.

Mobile home insurance isn’t required by law, but if you finance the purchase of a mobile home, your mortgage lender or mobile community will likely require you to purchase coverage.

Even if your lender doesn’t require it, insuring your home and its contents from loss and damage can help protect your investment.

DO YOU NEED HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE?

What’s the difference between a mobile home and a manufactured home?

Many people use the terms mobile home and manufactured home interchangeably. Both are built in a factory rather than at their eventual homesite. The difference between them is simply when they were built: A home built in a factory before June 15, 1976, is a mobile home, and one built after that date is a manufactured home.

Manufactured homes typically have the following characteristics:

• Constructed on a movable steel chassis that has one level
• Manufactured in different sections and taken to the building site on wheels
• Conforms to federal building codes
• May be placed on a basement or crawlspace
• Less expensive per square foot than homes built on site

Companies that offer mobile home insurance may cover both mobile homes and manufactured homes. However, insurance providers may tailor specific coverages and exclusions to the type of home you want to insure.

What does mobile home insurance cover?

Mobile home insurance provides a few kinds of coverage:

• Physical damage — This coverage pays for accidental damage to your mobile home, additional structures (such as an attached patio or storage shed), and your personal property within the mobile home. Most policies cover damage resulting from events like fire, hail, wind, theft, vandalism, and falling objects.
• Personal liability — This coverage protects you if someone injures themselves on your property or if you accidentally damage someone else’s property. It can cover the claimant’s property damage, medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. It also covers legal fees in the event of a lawsuit stemming from such a claim.
• Additional living expenses — This coverage pays for lodging and other costs if a covered loss makes your mobile home uninhabitable.

What doesn’t a mobile home insurance policy cover?

• Physical damage while in transit — Coverage typically doesn’t apply while your mobile home is in transit. So if you’re moving your mobile home from one location to another, you may need to get a special endorsement providing coverage for the structure and your personal property while you’re moving.
• Floods — Mobile home policies typically don’t cover damage from a flood. But you may purchase a separate flood insurance policy.
• Earthquakes — Most mobile home policies don’t cover damage due to an earthquake. As with flood insurance, you can purchase separate earthquake insurance.

HOW MUCH DOES FLOOD INSURANCE COST?

How much does an average mobile home insurance policy cost?

The cost of mobile home insurance can vary greatly depending on the coverage you need and your home’s size, condition, and location. In California, mobile home insurance typically costs between $250 and $1,300 per year, according to insurance provider Kin.

Factors that determine the cost of mobile home insurance

Your mobile home insurance policy premium depends on several factors. Let’s look at some of those factors in more detail to get an idea of how much your insurance might cost and look for ways to reduce your costs.

Personal factors

• Location — The state you live in impacts your mobile home insurance premium. It usually costs more to purchase coverage in a state with extreme weather — like tornadoes, hurricanes, and hail — than in states with milder weather.
• Value of personal property — The more valuable the stuff in your home, the more expensive it is to insure. You may also want to purchase additional coverage beyond the standard policy limits to cover things like collectibles, jewelry, or firearms.
• Claims history — If you have an existing homeowners or mobile home insurance policy, your new insurance carrier will consider your claims history in determining the premium for your new policy. If you have a history of filing claims, your coverage may be more expensive.

Mobile home factors

• Value — The more valuable the mobile home, the more expensive it is to replace in the event of a covered loss. As a result, you’ll pay a higher premium to insure a newer luxury modular home than you will to insure an older home.
• Age of the mobile home — Policies to cover older mobile homes may have higher premiums or be impossible to insure. Older mobile homes don’t meet Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) standards, so they’re considered higher risk by insurance carriers.
• Materials used — Your mobile home’s building materials can also impact your premium. Sturdier materials are less susceptible to hail and wind damage, making you less likely to file a claim.

Coverage and discounts

The coverage options you choose have a big impact on your overall costs. One way to reduce your insurance costs is to opt for named-perils coverage.

In a named-perils policy, your mobile home and its contents are only covered for damage due to specific perils, such as fire, lightning, hail, water damage, smoke, and vandalism. This differs from open-perils coverage, which covers damage to your mobile home and its contents for all perils except those specifically excluded, such as floods and earthquakes.

However, while named-perils coverage may be less expensive, it might not provide all the protection you need. If your named-perils policy doesn’t list a hazard that causes damage to your home, you won’t have coverage for the loss and will have to pay to repair or replace any damage out of pocket.

A better way to reduce your overall insurance costs might be to look for potential discounts. Some common discounts on mobile home insurance policies include:

• Safety devices — Your insurer may offer discounts if you have or install safety devices, such as smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, or sprinklers.
• Multi-policy discount — Bundling your mobile home insurance and auto insurance policy can provide a discount.
• New home discount — Some insurance carriers offer new home discounts for manufactured homes less than four years old.
• Full pay discounts — Some insurers offer discounts for paying your annual premium in full rather than breaking it up into monthly installments.
• Autopay discount — Choosing to automatically pay your premium electronically may help you qualify for an additional discount.
• Paperless billing — Your insurance provider may offer a discount if you elect to receive your bills and policy documents electronically.

WHAT IS A HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE DEDUCTIBLE?

Mobile home insurance FAQs

Here are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about mobile home insurance.

Will your existing homeowners insurance policy cover your mobile home?

A traditional homeowners insurance policy typically won’t cover a mobile home. But if you already have homeowners insurance, contact your insurance agent to see if your insurer offers mobile home insurance. You may be able to bundle your homeowners, auto, and mobile home insurance policies together. Many insurance companies offer discounts to customers who carry two or more insurance policies with them.

How much mobile home insurance do you need?

As with traditional homeowners insurance, your policy should provide enough protection to cover the cost of replacing your mobile or manufactured home and your possessions in the event of a total loss.

Most policies automatically set the coverage limit for your personal property at 50% to 70% of your dwelling coverage amount, but this is likely not enough, since most of us can’t cover 50% of our home’s replacement cost out of pocket.

Do you need a mobile home insurance policy for your modular home?

While the law doesn’t require home insurance, it’s always a good idea to have it, no matter what type of home you have. Plus, your mortgage lender will require you to have it. Even though modular homes are built with high-quality materials, you’ll still want to purchase coverage to protect your investment.

Should you get flood insurance if you have a mobile or manufactured home insurance policy?

If you’ve paid off the loan you used to purchase your mobile or manufactured home and don’t live in a flood zone, then you typically aren’t required to have flood insurance. But if you live in a flood zone, it may be worth it to purchase flood insurance coverage to protect your home and its contents from flood damage. An inch of water in your home can cause as much as $25,000 worth of damage.