How to Read a Home Insurance DEC Page
It's a one-page summary of your coverage, limits and deductibles. Check that the dwelling amount, dates and your name are correct.
Free to compare
Dwelling Coverage Amount
The dwelling figure is what it costs to rebuild your house, not the purchase price or its market value. Lenders usually want it to at least match the loan amount. Rebuilding costs can run higher than what you paid, so check the number against a rebuild estimate, not the sale price.
The Policy Dates
Your dec page lists an effective date and an expiration date. The effective date needs to line up with closing, or the lender won't let the sale proceed. If the date is wrong, flag it before you sign anything, not after.
Your Deductible Choice
The deductible shows as a dollar amount or a percentage of the dwelling coverage. A percentage deductible on a high-value home can mean paying thousands out of pocket before coverage starts. Check which type is listed and work out what it means in actual dollars.
Lender and Mortgagee Clause
Your lender should appear by name on the dec page as the mortgagee, usually with a loan number. If this is missing or misspelled, the lender may not accept the policy as proof of coverage, which can delay closing.
The dec page one insurer sends isn't the only version of that policy. Dwelling amounts, deductible structure and what's included for the same house can differ enough to change what you'd pay after a loss or hand over up front. Comparing a few before you commit to a binder means catching a bad percentage deductible or a low dwelling figure while there's still time to fix it.
What the Other Numbers on the Page Mean
The dwelling amount is the one everyone checks first, but the dec page lists several other coverage limits underneath it. Each one caps what gets paid for something specific. Other structures covers a detached garage, a fence, a shed. Personal property covers what's inside the house, your furniture and belongings, usually shown as a percentage of the dwelling figure. Loss of use pays for a hotel and meals if the house becomes unlivable after a covered loss. These are usually calculated off the dwelling amount automatically. If that number is wrong, all of these are wrong too.
Liability coverage sits apart from the rest because it isn't about your house at all. It pays out if someone gets hurt on your property and sues, or if you're found responsible for damage to someone else's property. The dec page lists this as its own limit. Lenders don't usually require a specific liability amount, but it's worth knowing it's there and what it covers. It's easy to assume every number on the page relates to the house itself, and this one doesn't.
The dec page also lists endorsements, which are add-ons or changes to the base policy. Some are routine, like scheduling a piece of jewelry for extra coverage. Others matter more for a new house, like an endorsement for water backup, or a specific exclusion the insurer has added for something about the property. If a line mentions an endorsement you don't recognize, ask what it does before closing. Finding out after something happens is too late to do anything about it.
Near the bottom, the page states the perils the policy covers, meaning the causes of damage it pays for. A standard policy covers things like fire and wind. It does not cover flood or earthquake, regardless of what else is listed, since both require a separate policy. If the house sits somewhere prone to either, the dec page itself won't warn you. It only lists what's included, not what's missing.
What About Replacement Cost and Other Coverage Terms?
Somewhere on the dec page, usually near the dwelling figure, there's a note about how a payout gets calculated. This matters more than it looks like it does. Replacement cost means the insurer pays what it actually costs to rebuild or repair with materials of similar kind and quality, no deduction for age or wear. Actual cash value means they subtract depreciation first, so a ten-year-old roof gets paid out at what a ten-year-old roof is worth, not what a new one costs. For a house you're about to buy, this is worth checking line by line, since some policies apply replacement cost to the dwelling but actual cash value to the roof specifically, listed as a separate endorsement or exclusion.
The dec page may also list coverage for ordinance or law, sometimes called code upgrade coverage. If the house is older and part of it burns down, current building codes might require upgrades that weren't needed when the house was first built, things like updated wiring or a different kind of foundation support. Without this coverage, the base dwelling limit pays to rebuild what was there, not what the code now requires, and the gap comes out of pocket. It's a small line on the page and an easy one to skip past, but for an older house it can matter as much as the dwelling figure itself.
Policies also distinguish between named-peril and open-peril coverage, and the dec page won't always spell out which one applies in those exact words. Named-peril means the policy only pays for damage caused by something on its specific list. Open-peril, sometimes called special form, covers everything except what's specifically excluded. The practical difference shows up when something unusual happens, something that isn't on a named list but also isn't one of the standard exclusions. Most standard homeowners policies for the dwelling itself are open-peril, while personal property is often named-peril even on the same policy, which is why belongings sometimes get covered differently than the structure.
None of these terms show up as a single clear line item the way the dwelling amount does. They're often folded into policy language referenced by form number on the dec page, which is its own small print worth asking about. A lender won't flag this for anyone, since lenders care about the dwelling amount matching the loan and the mortgagee clause being correct. Everything past that is left to the person buying the policy to understand or not. Asking what form number applies and what it means in plain terms takes a few minutes before closing and avoids guessing after a loss.
Before you sign
Pull up the dec page next to the closing date your lender gave you. If the effective date, the dwelling amount, or the mortgagee clause doesn't match, fix it now.
