Best Homeowners Insurance in Ohio (2023)
A homeowners insurance policy can protect your home and belongings from the harsh Ohio winters that can cause water damage from frozen pipes and structural damage from the weight of frozen precipitation.
In this guide, we examine each of the top homeowners insurance providers in the state to help you find the best homeowners insurance in Ohio.
3 Best Homeowners Insurance Providers in Ohio
Here are the top providers of homeowners insurance in Ohio:
- Allstate: Best Coverage Options
- Liberty Mutual: Best Discounts
- Farmers: Most Customizable Coverage
Allstate
Allstate is the only provider in this review that provides 24/7 customer service. Regardless of the type of question you have—billing, sales, policy, or claims—you can reach a customer service representative at any time. If you prefer self-service, you can manage your policy and claims using the Allstate online portal or mobile app.
Pros and Cons of Allstate Home Insurance
✔ Offers the choice of 60% or 75% of dwelling for personal property coverage
✔ Provides nine discounts to help lower your home insurance rates
✔ Has more than 10 endorsements to customize your coverage
✘ Has fewer years of experience than Liberty Mutual and Farmers
✘ Provides the lowest liability coverage cap of $500,000
Get Quote: Allstate Home Insurance Quote
Learn More: Allstate Home Insurance Review
*AM Best ratings accurate as of August 2023
Liberty Mutual
Liberty Mutual gave us the most affordable quote compared to the other providers in this review. The average cost for homeowners insurance is around $101 per month, and Liberty Mutual can provide policies within that range thanks to its extensive list of discounts commonly offered to homeowners that helps decrease the cost of a monthly premium.
Pros and Cons of Liberty Mutual Home Insurance
✔ Has over 100 years of experience in the insurance industry
✔ Often offers customizable coverage limits for liability insurance
✔ Personal property replacement cost endorsement pays for new items when yours are damaged
✘ Doesn’t allow you to customize personal property coverage
✘ Doesn’t offer 24/7 customer service
Get Quote: Liberty Mutual Home Insurance Quote
Learn More: Liberty Mutual Home Insurance Review
Farmers
Farmers has the most customizable deductible options. Its deductibles are split up by event into hurricane, wind and hail, and all other perils. For each of those perils, you have at least five deductible options and can tailor your deductibles to how likely it is that one of these perils will occur.
Pros and Cons of Farmers Home Insurance
✔ Offers up to 200% of dwelling for personal property and other structures coverage
✔ Provides up to $2 million in liability coverage
✔ Give you the choice of 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 100% of rebuilding cost for dwelling coverage
✘ Doesn’t offer many discounts
✘ Only available in 36 states
Get Quote: Farmers Home Insurance Quote
Learn More: Farmers Home Insurance Review
Our Conclusion
We recommend Allstate, Liberty Mutual and Farmers for people who are looking for the best homeowners insurance in Ohio. These three providers are all well-established in the homeowners insurance industry and offer a wide range of coverage options to accommodate the diverse needs of Ohio homeowners.
To get a free personalized homeowners insurance quote for providers in your area, call 855-948-5219 or enter your zip code into the tool below:
Ohio Homeowners Insurance Coverage
Homeowners insurance policies are split into six sections:
- Dwelling—If an unexpected event, like a fire or tornado, destroys your home, this part of the policy pays to rebuild it. It covers everything that’s built into the home, like cabinetry, walls, and your HVAC system.
- Other structures—This covers items that aren’t built into your home but are still on your property. This may include structures like fences, sheds, and garages. Other structures coverage is usually 10% of dwelling coverage.
- Personal property—This area of coverage protects your belongings when they’re in your home or when you’re on a trip. You can purchase a replacement cost endorsement that will replace damaged items with new ones, or you can stick with the base policy that gives you enough money to replace your items with similar items of depreciated value. Personal property protection will be at least 50% of dwelling coverage.
- Loss of use—If your home requires serious repairs that forces you to temporarily live elsewhere, your home insurance provider will pay for living expenses during that time. This typically makes up 20% of dwelling coverage.
- Personal liability—Your policy pays for legal fees, repairs or replacements, and medical bills if you cause bodily injury or property damage to another person. We recommend purchasing at least $300,000 of this type of protection.
- Medical payments to others—If a guest is injured on your property, your provider will pay their medical bills. Most policies start at $1,000 per person.
How Much Does a Homeowners Insurance Policy Cost in Ohio?
In 2017, the average homeowners insurance policy in Ohio cost $862 per year or about $72 per month, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That was cheaper than the national average of $101 per month. At that time, Ohio was the eighth-cheapest state for home insurance.
Factors to Consider Before Buying Homeowners Insurance
Here are a few factors to consider before purchasing homeowners insurance in Ohio:
- Size of company—The three providers we recommended are all large, national companies. If you prefer a more intimate customer service experience, you may be better off with a smaller company like The Cincinnati Insurance Company.
- Winter damage—Ohio’s harsh winters can cause pipes to freeze and damage your home from the weight of snow, sleet, or ice. To avoid having to pay for these damages, make sure your policy covers these events.
- Discounts—If you’re on a budget, look at insurance providers that offer several discounts. Liberty Mutual and Allstate are two companies that offer a variety of discounts, including ones for bundling home and auto insurance, being claims-free, and having safety features in your home.
- Rebuilding cost—The rebuilding cost is the deciding factor for four out of the six types of coverage in your insurance policy, which makes an accurate estimation important. The best way to get an estimate is to talk to a real estate appraiser with knowledge of the local housing market, but you can also use the estimate given to you by your insurance company or purchase $100–$155 of protection per square foot.
Comparing the Top Providers of Home Insurance in Ohio
FAQs About Homeowners Insurance in Ohio
What is an independent insurance agent?
Independent agents don’t work for a particular insurance provider. Instead, they sell insurance products from several national or local companies. If you have a limited amount of knowledge surrounding the insurance industry or don’t trust your judgment on what type of policy to buy, consider talking to an independent agent.
How long will my claim take?
It will usually take about 48 hours for your insurance provider to either approve or deny your claim. If your claim is approved, your insurance company will assign an adjuster to you. Depending on how complicated your claim is, it could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for you to receive compensation from your insurance company.
What is a claims adjuster?
A claims adjuster determines how much your insurance company should pay you when you file a claim by speaking to you and witnesses, assessing damages, and reading reports from officials. These adjusters can be in-house representatives or independent contractors hired by your insurance company.
Our Rating Methodology
The This Old House Reviews Team is committed to providing comprehensive and unbiased reviews to our readers. This means earning your trust through transparency and having the data to back up our ratings and recommendations.
With that in mind, we created an objective rating system to score each home insurance company. Here’s what that review process looked like:
- We analyze the information on each company’s website. This allows us to determine what products and services are offered by each home insurance provider.
- We get a sample quote from the companies by either talking to a sales representative or by using the online quote tool. This tells us what a policy looks like and costs.
- We test customer service by talking to a company representative, finding out their hours of operation, and determining what technological features are available for customers.
- We update all of this information on a continuous basis, storing it in a proprietary database that allows us to compare dozens of home insurance companies against each other.
With this data, we created a rating methodology to score each home insurance company. Our rating system is a weighted, 100-point scale based on the following factors:
- Coverage (30): We rated home insurance companies higher if they offered the six main types of homeowner protection—dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, liability, and medical payments to others coverage.
- State availability (7.5): Companies scored higher if they covered more states than their competitors.
- Customer service (15): This factor is based on our communications with the company representatives, as well as the companies’ claims and quotes processes, availability throughout the week, and customer service information found on their websites.
- Technology (12.5): Technology can increase the efficiency of filing and tracking home insurance claims. Companies scored higher if they had technology options like mobile apps and online chat functions.
- Reputation (20): We gauged trustworthiness based on years of experience and Better Business Bureau ratings.
- Additional benefits (15): Companies that offered optional features, like discounts and endorsements, scored higher than competitors that didn’t.
The This Old House Reviews Team has a full-time researcher who collects and regularly updates data points from every company to help us compare them on key factors such as coverage, service, and dependability.
To share feedback or ask a question about this article, send a note to our Reviews Team at reviews@thisoldhousereviews.com.
