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Fact Checked
Fact Checked
Published: Sep 27, 2022, 7:00am
Hippo offers robust homeowners insurance discounts and coverage options. Hippo includes free smart-home technology with a new policy in many states. Hippo home insurance is worth considering if you’re interested in smart-home technology and looking for extra coverage for home office and electronic equipment.
Related: Best home insurance
Hippo offers home and condo insurance policies through its insurance partners such as Spinnaker, a property and casualty insurer.
For homeowners interested in other policies such as auto insurance, Hippo connects consumers with one of its many insurance partners.
Hippo also sells:
Hippo provides all the standard types of homeowners insurance you need for solid protection. It also includes a smart-home monitoring kit and home maintenance check-up service with its basic home insurance policies.
Dwelling coverage: This pays to repair or rebuild your house if it’s damaged by a problem covered by the policy, like a fire or tornado.
Other structures coverage: If a structure that’s not attached to your home—a fence or shed, for instance—is damaged, this pays to fix or replace it.
Liability coverage: Liability home insurance pays for property damage and injuries you accidentally cause to others. The cost of your legal defense if you are sued over a covered incident is also covered.
Personal property coverage: This pays to replace or repair your personal items, such as furniture and clothes, if damaged by an incident listed in the policy.
Additional living expenses: Also called loss of use, additional living expenses coverage pays the costs of things like meals, hotels and pet boarding if you can’t live in your house after it’s damaged by a problem covered by the policy.
Hippo Smart Home: Hippo offers complimentary home monitoring systems to detect water leaks, carbon monoxide, smoke and motion to protect your home against potential loss. If you keep the devices activated, you earn a smart home discount on your insurance premium each year.
Hippo Home Care: Hippo customers get access to professionals who can answer your questions about home maintenance. From quick plumbing fixes to outdoor upkeep, you can connect with an expert via phone, video or email to talk through your problem.
Related: What does homeowners insurance cover?
In addition to the core types of homeowners insurance, Hippo offers a bunch of optional endorsements that you can add to a policy for an extra cost.
Hippo homeowners insurance is underwritten by Spinnaker Insurance Co., which has a low level of complaints made to state insurance departments about homeowners insurance compared to the industry average. Still, its level of complaints is higher than many top competitors, including Allstate, Farmers, Liberty Mutual and State Farm.
When buying Hippo insurance you can choose any combination of home insurance coverage types you want, but Hippo also groups its offerings into three tiers to make it easy to find a combination.
If you’re interested in Hippo insurance, you can request a quote in one of three ways:
This applies to customers who purchase a Hippo home insurance policy through a group such as your former college or a membership club.
If you buy pay-per-mile car insurance from Metromile and purchase a Hippo homeowners insurance policy, you can save with a bundling discount.
This is a discount for installing eligible impact-resistant roofing materials.
If your homeowners association (HOA) qualifies, you could be eligible for a discount.
If you go three to five years without filing a homeowners insurance claim, you can be eligible for a discount.
If you bought a home within 12 months prior to buying a Hippo home insurance policy, you could save on money.
When installing smart home devices like smart monitoring systems, you could save money on your home insurance policy. Hippo helps by sending new customers a basic home monitoring kit.
You could qualify for a discount if you install a theft prevention device, live in a neighborhood with security staff or presence, or have a theft alarm that’s monitored 24/7. You also get a price break if you have fire extinguishers, a water-leak detection device, burglar alarm, fire alarm, sprinkler system deadbolt or smoke alarm.
Homeowner insurance policies provided by Hippo do not cover liability claims caused by dogs with a prior bite history or by dogs classified as the following breeds:
Related: Dog breeds banned by home insurance companies
Hippo was founded in 2015 and sold its first policy in 2017. Hippo’s mission is to provide coverage combined with smart technology and easy access to home professionals to help customers care for their homes.
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