Insurance for Historical Buildings

There are a lot of beautiful historical homes and commercial buildings around the Tri-Cities, Tennessee area. Downtown Jonesborough (Tennessee’s oldest town), Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol are all marked by their historical buildings. Historic districts do so much to preserve local history. However, historical buildings can come with certain challenges. When insuring historical buildings and homes, there are certain things you must do in order to get the coverage you need.

More Expenses Need Coverage

Oftentimes, local historic districts have strict regulations on remodeling and authenticity. In the case of disaster, if your historical building or home is only insured with a standard policy, you may not have the coverage you need to meet all of the distinct requirements for older buildings in your town or city. For example, finding authentic or period appropriate building materials and parts can be difficult and costly. In addition, new codes may require certain things like sprinkler systems or elevators in the building. This creates extra expenses as well.

A Standard Policy is Not Enough

A standard insurance policy should pay you a substantial portion of the cost to rebuild. However, it won’t provide everything needed to comply with the additional building codes. This leaves you unable to rebuild without very large out-of-pocket expenses. It could also leave you needing to obtain a loan to finance the balance or repair bills due to city, county, or state laws. If you own a historical building, you should carefully look over your insurance policy and sit down with your insurance agent to figure out what your exposures are. It is important to be fully covered in the event of a claim.

Get Coverage

If you have any questions about insuring your home, historical building, or business, or have questions about high value home insurance, please contact our Johnson City office at (423) 292-4142, or send an email to help@veritasrm.com. We would be happy to give you more information and help you make sure you have the coverage you need.