Your Complete Guide to Mobile Home Insurance in 2025
TLDR: The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Home Insurance (2025)
Mobile home insurance (HO-7) is a special policy for manufactured homes, covering your structure, belongings, and liability.
It covers most perils (like fire, wind, hail) but excludes flooding and earthquakes, which require separate policies.
Understand the massive difference between Actual Cash Value (ACV) and Replacement Cost Value (RCV). RCV costs more but protects you from depreciation, which can save you tens of thousands of dollars on a major claim.
Filing a claim is a complex process where the insurance company's adjuster represents their interests, not yours.
A public adjuster is a licensed professional you can hire to represent you. They manage your entire claim and fight to maximize your settlement. If you have significant damage in FL, MN, or WI, contact a team like Shoreline for a free claim review to ensure you get what you're owed.
Owning a manufactured home offers freedom and affordability, a slice of the American dream uniquely your own. It's more than just a structure; it's the center of your life, a place of comfort and security. But protecting that dream requires a specific type of insurance that is often misunderstood, leaving homeowners dangerously exposed when disaster strikes.
Many owners assume their policy is "good enough," only to discover critical gaps in coverage after the worst has happened. Whether you're bracing for a Florida hurricane, assessing damage from a Minnesota hailstorm, or dealing with the crushing weight of Wisconsin snow, understanding your mobile home insurance is the single most important step you can take to protect your financial future. This guide will break down everything you need to know, transforming you from an anxious homeowner into an empowered policyholder.
What Exactly Is Mobile Home Insurance?
Mobile home insurance, formally known as an HO-7 policy, is a specialized insurance product designed for manufactured homes, mobile homes, sectional homes, and park models. It's crucial to understand that an HO-7 policy is not the same as a traditional homeowners (HO-3) policy. Why? Because manufactured homes have different risk factors related to their construction, materials, and transportability.
An HO-7 policy is typically an "open peril" policy for the structure itself. This is a significant advantage. It means your home is covered for all causes of damage except for those specifically listed as exclusions in your policy. Your personal belongings, however, are usually covered on a "named peril" basis, meaning they are only protected against the specific list of dangers written into the policy (like fire, theft, and wind).
What Does a Standard HO-7 Policy Cover?
Think of your policy as a bundle of different coverages, each protecting a different aspect of your life. While the exact details can vary, a standard mobile home insurance policy typically includes these five key areas:
Dwelling Coverage: This is the core of your policy. It covers physical damage to the structure of your mobile home from covered perils. Imagine a severe thunderstorm rolls through your town, and a heavy tree branch crashes through your roof, damaging the trusses and letting in rain. Dwelling coverage is what pays to repair that structural damage. It also typically covers attached structures like a permanent deck, porch, or carport.
Other Structures: This covers structures on your property that are not physically attached to your home. For example, if that same storm knocked a tree onto your detached shed where you keep your lawn equipment, this is the coverage that would pay to repair or replace it. Fences are another common item covered under this section.
Personal Property Coverage: This protects your belongings inside the home—your furniture, electronics, clothing, kitchenware, and more. If a fire damaged your living room, this coverage would help you replace your couch, television, and other items. Pro Tip: Create a home inventory with photos or video before you have a claim. It makes the process infinitely smoother. Also, be aware that high-value items like jewelry, art, or firearms often have low coverage limits, and you may need to purchase a separate "rider" or "floater" to insure them for their full value.
Liability Protection: This is crucial protection that often gets overlooked. If a guest is injured on your property and you are found legally responsible, this coverage helps pay for their medical bills and your legal defense costs. For instance, if a delivery person slips and falls on your icy front steps in Wisconsin, liability protection can cover the resulting lawsuit, preventing a devastating financial loss.
Loss of Use / Additional Living Expenses (ALE): If your home becomes uninhabitable due to a covered loss, this coverage is a lifeline. It helps pay for the temporary living expenses you incur while your property is being repaired. This isn't just for a hotel room; it can cover the cost of meals, laundry services, and other essential expenses that arise because you've been displaced from your home.
Crucial Exclusions: What Your Policy Doesn't Cover
This is where many policyholders get into trouble. Understanding what is not covered is just as important as knowing what is. Standard mobile home insurance policies almost always exclude certain types of damage:
Flooding: This is the most critical exclusion to understand, especially in Florida. Water damage from a burst pipe inside your home is usually covered. However, damage from rising surface water (like a river overflowing, a hurricane storm surge, or heavy rain pooling and entering your home) is not covered. This requires a separate policy from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Earthquakes: Damage from earth movement, including earthquakes, sinkholes, and landslides, is another common exclusion that requires a separate policy endorsement.
Maintenance Issues & Wear and Tear: Policies are designed for sudden and accidental damage, not gradual deterioration. For example, a slow, unfixed leak under your kitchen sink that leads to mold and wood rot over several months is a maintenance issue and will likely be denied. The same goes for rust or general wear and tear on an aging roof.
In-Transit Damage: If you are moving your home from one location to another, your standard HO-7 policy will not cover damage that occurs during the move. You will need to secure a separate, specialized trip-collision policy for the transport itself.
Filing a Claim: The Moment of Truth & The ACV vs. RCV Showdown
When disaster strikes, the claims process begins. You’ll be asked to document the damage and file a mountain of paperwork. The insurance company will send their own adjuster to assess the loss. It is essential to remember that this adjuster works for and is loyal to the insurance company. Their job is to evaluate the loss from the perspective of their employer, which often means minimizing the payout.
This is where the disputes begin, and it's where you need to understand the most important acronyms in your policy: ACV and RCV.
Actual Cash Value (ACV): This is the cost to replace your damaged property, minus depreciation. Depreciation is the decrease in an item's value due to age, wear, and tear.
Replacement Cost Value (RCV): This is the actual cost to repair or replace your damaged property with new materials of similar kind and quality, without a deduction for depreciation.
Let's use a real-world example: Your 15-year-old roof is destroyed in a hailstorm. It has a 25-year lifespan.
Cost to replace the roof today: $20,000
Depreciation (15/25 years, or 60%): $12,000
Your deductible: $1,000
If you have an ACV policy, the insurance company would calculate: $20,000 (Replacement Cost) - $12,000 (Depreciation) = $8,000. Then they subtract your deductible. You would receive a check for $7,000. You are now responsible for finding the remaining $13,000 to actually get a new roof.
If you have an RCV policy, the process is different. You would initially receive a check for the ACV amount ($7,000). Then, once you have actually replaced the roof and can provide receipts showing you spent $20,000, the insurance company will "release" the recoverable depreciation ($12,000) and send you a second check. You still pay your deductible, but you are made whole in the end. Many homeowners don't realize they must complete the work first to get that second check.
Suddenly, you’re not just recovering from a disaster—you’re in a complex financial negotiation against a team of experts.
You Don't Have to Fight Alone: The Role of a Public Adjuster
When your mobile home suffers significant damage, a public adjuster is your single greatest asset. While the insurance company has its own adjuster, a public adjuster is a state-licensed insurance professional who works exclusively for you, the policyholder. We level the playing field.
At Shoreline Public Adjusters, our role is to take the entire burden of the claim off your shoulders:
We Conduct a Deep Dive into Your Policy: We meticulously review your HO-7 policy to identify every bit of coverage you are entitled to, often finding coverages that homeowners didn't even know they had.
We Document Everything: We use our expertise in construction and claims to thoroughly document all damage with detailed reports, photos, and professional repair estimates. We look for hidden damage—like smoke damage inside walls or compromised structural supports—that a company adjuster might conveniently overlook.
We Manage All Communication: You can stop spending hours on the phone being transferred from one department to another. We handle all communication, paperwork, and negotiation with the insurance company on your behalf.
We Fight for Your Maximum Settlement: We advocate tirelessly to ensure you receive a fair and just settlement that allows you to properly repair your home and replace your belongings. Studies have shown that policyholders who hire a public adjuster receive significantly higher settlements than those who don't.
The difference between what your insurer initially offers and what a public adjuster can secure can be life-changing, often turning a denied or drastically underpaid claim into a successful recovery that allows you to truly rebuild.
Shoreline Public Adjusters, LLC
780 Fifth Avenue South
Suite #200
Naples, FL 34102Email: hello@teamshoreline.com
Phone: 954-546-1899
Fax: 239-778-9889
