Lying is a bad idea for many reasons. If you’re going to lie to your insurance agent so you can save a few bucks on home insurance, it isn’t worth it.
If you do lie about your home insurance needs, it could hit you in the wallet if some expensive incident happens that isn’t covered by your standard insurance policy. The worst case would be that by not disclosing something to your insurer, your entire policy could be dropped or voided when they find out about it.
Here are five home insurance areas where policyholders shouldn’t lie or “forget” to tell their insurance agent about:
Swimming pool
A standard home insurance policy will likely cover you if you have a pool and someone gets injured. However, as we’ve written before, your policy’s liability coverage may not be enough to cover medical care and any financial reward from a civil lawsuit.
Standard liability coverage is $100,000, but you may want to increase it to $300,000 or more if you have a pool. An umbrella policy may also be needed.
To get insurance for your pool, you may be required by an insurer to have a fence around it and a secure pool cover. If the pool has a slide or diving board, you may have to sign an exclusion, which won’t cover injuries related to those.
Trampoline
Like a swimming pool, a trampoline can be difficult to insure because of the increased risk of an accident. Trampolines cause more than $1 billion in emergency room visits in the United States.
Even if someone trespasses on your property and is injured on your trampoline, you could be held liable. Again, you may want extra personal liability coverage, which will cost more money. Having a fence around it may help lower the cost.
Dogs
Certain types of dogs can lead to higher insurance premiums for homeowners, and some carriers won’t insure them at all. They include pit bulls, Rottweilers, German shepherds, Akitas, Alaskan Malamutes and Doberman Pinschers.
Insurers may also deny coverage for homeowners with dogs with a history of aggressive behavior. If your dog has bitten someone, your insurer could charge you a higher premium.
While city ordinances preventing ownership of specific breeds can be challenged on constitutional grounds, insurance companies are not part of the government and can discriminate based on breed.
Dog bites make up a lot of costly insurance claims, with the average cost paid for dog bite claims nationwide at $37,214 in 2015, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That money could come out of your pocket if you forget to tell your insurance agent about your aggressive dog.
Home renovation/addition
Adding on to your home or upgrading it can be expensive, and not telling your insurance agent about the changes could lead to a denied claim or a lower payout.
Dwelling coverage pays for your home to be rebuilt or repaired if it’s damaged or destroyed by fire or other covered peril. The replacement costs increase if you installed new appliances in the kitchen and made sure they were covered by your insurance. But if you didn’t alert your insurance agent? That means you’re underinsured and may have to cover that extra cost yourself.
Contents
Not telling your insurance company about increasing the value of your home can lead to denied coverage, or at least lower coverage than you need, and the same goes for not telling it about expensive items you recently bought or lying about possessions you don’t have.
A standard policy will have contents coverage, replacing your belongings if they’re damaged in a fire or some other event. A home inventory with photographs can help speed up your claim, as can having receipts and serial numbers on hand.
You could lie when making such claims, but that’s fraud and you could be put in jail for it.
With all of these areas, honesty is the best policy. Lying to your insurance company might get you some extra coverage for awhile, but as soon as it discovers your lie, your policy could be dropped and the police may want to talk to you next.
Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist who specializes in insurance and personal finance writing.