If you don't have homeowners insurance and your house burns down, you'll either have to pay for repairs out of pocket, or hope you can get money from someone else.

If you own a home, chances are you have

homeowners insurance

. A homeowners policy helps protect your home when you suffer from a natural disaster or

other peril

that requires your home to be repaired or replaced.

Sometimes though, someone will have no insurance and then have their house go up in flames. It's not a pretty situation to be in, but here's what you should know about it.

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Why do you need homeowners insurance?

When you buy a home, your lender will probably require that you have homeowners insurance. This is to protect the investment that they made in your home when they lent you the money to buy it. If something happened to your home, the lender would be out all of the money they paid for you to buy it.

Homeowners insurance also protects you, as the buyer, against losing your home as a result of one of the covered perils in the policy. One particular peril, fire, is a big risk to homeowners across the U.S. More than

27% of reported fires

between 2014 and 2018 occurred in homes.

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What happens if you don’t have insurance and your house burns down?

While most homeowners have homeowners insurance, not everybody does. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage and are no longer required to have insurance. Maybe your insurance has lapsed and you haven't signed up for a new policy.

Whatever the case, what exactly happens if your house burns down and you don’t have insurance? First off, if you do have a mortgage, you’ll still owe the lender the money they lent you, including the interest. Your home burning down, sadly, doesn’t free you from this obligation.

Failure to pay your mortgage company what you owe on the home will place you in default, meaning you could be foreclosed upon. In many cases, a lender will step in as soon as they find out you have no insurance on your home. Your lender might even choose a new insurer for you, sometimes at a higher premium than what you were paying before.

As you can see, it’s always a good idea to keep your home properly insured, especially if you still owe money on it. Even if it’s paid off, if you suffer a disaster without insurance, you’ll have no way to repair or rebuild your home except out of pocket.

Something else that comes into play when not having homeowners insurance is your personal property. Homeowners insurance provides some protection against loss of personal property from fire, including appliances in your home. Without insurance, you’re left to absorb that cost on your own as well.

Key Takeaway: Without homeowners insurance, any repairs on your home after a disaster will have to be paid for out of pocket.

What you can do if you have no insurance and your house burns down

If for some reason you don’t have homeowners insurance and your house burns down, you do have some options available. And while these options are limited, they at least give you some recourse in such a situation.

Was the fire your fault?

If it’s determined that the fire was someone else’s fault, you might be able to take them to court to sue for damages. A personal attorney should be able to help you determine your next course of action in such a case.

Look for help

You also have some other avenues, such as programs, charities, or benefits, that you can use if your house burns down and you don’t have insurance. Various organizations, like the Red Cross, can provide some relief to homeowners who have lost their home, especially in areas hard hit by natural disasters.

Key Takeaway: Legal action can be taken if someone else is at fault for the fire, or financial aid can be donated by various humanitarian organizations to relieve some of the cost.

In reality, there’s really no good reason not to have a homeowners insurance policy on your home. Nothing may ever happen to your house, but if it does, you’ll be glad you did have insurance. In the long run, the expense of replacing a house far outweighs the cost of insurance.

And while the cost of insurance can be off-putting, there are things you can do to make it cheaper. A great first step would be to bundle your home and

car insurance

using

Jerry

. This super-app lets you compare quotes from 50+ providers, so you can find the cheapest plan that covers your needs, all without any calls or paperwork.

FAQs

What do insurance companies do when your house burns down?

If you file a claim as quickly as possible, then insurance companies will go to work covering the damages. While there's no such thing as

house fire insurance

, most home insurance policies are pretty comprehensive.

Can you own a house without insurance?

Yes, but it's not recommended. Most lenders will require that you buy homeowners insurance when you take out a loan. However, once loans expire, there's no obligation to have insurance. But on the odd chance that your house does burn down, insurance is a good option.

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