How do you insure a mobile home when you own the home and lease the land it sits on?
Further, is the same insurance available for mobile homes on leased land as there is for single-family homes?
When working with clients who are new to the mobile home space, we are often asked if mobile homes on leased land can be insured and, if so, what type of insurance is available for these homes.
For this blog, we will limit our conversation to what we at The Mobile Home Dealer specialize in: mobile homes on leased land.
Mobile homes on leased land, as discussed several times through our previous blogs, are titled as used motor vehicles in Florida and not as a real estate since these homes come with titles for ownership and not deeds.
If a mobile home is sold with the land, either in a rural setting or in a resident-owned community, then the home is viewed as real estate and not personal property.
When you own real estate, the opportunities for insurance coverage are much greater than that of a mobile home on leased land. What we have found in our experience within the mobile home space is that many times, homeowners of mobile homes on leased land will take out some type of liability coverage for their mobile home. This coverage will often be for slips and falls, personal injury, or if someone gets hurt while on their property.
This could cover the homeowner for a family member falling on a step if it was rainy and slippery or if the delivery person slipped and fell when delivering a package to the front door. We hope that no one ever gets hurt on or around your property, but on the off chance they do, many homeowners will have this type of policy coverage for their mobile home in case a claim needs to be filed.
When we have mobile homeowners looking for full coverage, just as if they were owning a single-family home, they are usually surprised by how few other mobile homeowners carry this type of coverage within their mobile home park.
One of the reasons we have seen so few people having full coverage on a mobile home located on leased land is that mobile homes are much less expensive to repair than similar repairs for a single-family home. To show this, I always like to give the example of damage to a mobile home carport. In this example, if someone you know took the turn too close while turning into the carport of your mobile home and damaged a pillar, it usually is much cheaper to have that repair done with a local professional in cash, as opposed to filing the claim with your homeowner’s insurance policy.
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The reason for this is that once the mobile home owner factors in the insurance policy deductible and the possible increase in monthly premiums as a result of the filing, they may very well come out ahead if they had just paid for the claim in cash, as opposed to filing it.
Homeowners insurance on mobile homes located on leased land is certainly available. Although we are not insurance specialists by any means here at The Mobile Home Dealer, we strongly suggest that you do your homework on what type of coverage you select prior to obtaining your mobile home’s homeowner’s insurance policy.
Although manufactured homes, previously called mobile homes, are built in a factory and moved to a chosen place, they are not very different from the single-family houses built on the site, even regarding insurance. Whether you live there all year or season, it is essential to help protect your home with mobile home insurance.
What covers mobile home insurance?
Insurance coverages for mobile homes are usually similar to a standard policy for traditional house owners, which offers home coverage, your personal property, and demands for civil liability. According to the Insurance Information Institute* (III), the two basic coverages that are generally included in mobile home insurance policies are physical damage and civil liability.
Physical structure and contents
If your mobile home or its content suffers physical damage caused by dangers such as fires, robbery, or vandalism, repair or replacement costs are generally covered by a policy for mobile homes. The additional structures of your lot, such as a patio or a garage, and your personal belongings will probably also be covered. However, some policies only cover certain causes of loss. These “designated hazards” policies can have lower premiums, but be sure to check with your agent to know what is excluded from your policy.
Civil Liability
Policies generally include coverage against civil liability, which can help protect yourself (within the limits of the established policy) if you or someone in your home are responsible for the damage to the property. However, the coverage against civil liability generally does not cover an injury that you have suffered or another member of your family, or anyone inside your mobile home. However, if your children accidentally break the neighbor’s window playing the ball, your policy will probably cover the repair cost.
This is Mark Kaiser with The Mobile Home Dealer. We help mobile home Buyers and Sellers improve their lives.
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