Finding Arson Insurance Is Not So Hard

Protecting one's home is a major concern for most Americans, and millions of dollars go to keeping the house safe everyday. Security cameras, alarm systems and even the sale of firearms have been all part of the American psyche, with worries over the safety and security only mounting higher with news reports of violent crime.

This concern for safety has even extended in people's insurance, and for this, home insurance has given people avenues to help better secure their domicile. Insurance for the house often covers a wide scope of possible scenarios. However, a separate policy is often needed for very specific events. Arson, or the deliberate act done to set a house on fire, is one such example. Most insurance companies can't cover this under regular HO1 homeowner policies, or even HO3 policies, and this limits the kind of protection that people get.

A majority of insurance policies don't tackle arson. The situation when a house burns down can be very volatile, to say the least. It is historically an insurance scenario that, in theory, is easy to cheat a company with. It is fairly easy for someone to collude with a friend, or even a stranger, and set fire to insured property, and thus allowing both of them to cash in on the damage claim. Because of this, throughout the 1980s legislation was passed to further tighten the policies surrounding arson and the insurance industry. There have even been multiple groups or firms that have come up and offer their services to insurance companies to help investigate every fire, as they may be arson jobs that have been done on purpose to defraud.

On that note, it has become more difficult for arson policy holders to claim when companies suspect something fishy in how property was damaged. Insurance companies today often do an investigation separate from what law enforcement conducts, and shadier firms may even choose to skew facts to make it appear that the fire was not arson. That way, they spare themselves from the need to shell out money to help the homeowner's family at their moment of need.

Finding policies for arson is not impossible, however. There are a number of avenues that people can try when looking for a dependable policy that can work with them, and not against them.