Do you own a house older than 40 years? If yes, then you need a specific insurance policy, e.g. the H08. There are some important differences with other policies for homeowners, especially worth considering compared to a more common H03: let’s discuss so that you can finally decide if H08 is your case.
H08 is a basic homeowners insurance, like H01, H02, and H03. It is specifically tailored to meet the risk conditions associated with older houses, which don’t satisfy all of the update requirements that you would typically find with the other standard policies: HVAC (heat, ventilation, air conditioning), electrical system, hydraulic pipes, and roof. Generally, insurance companies ask these house components to be upgraded, in order to grant you the home coverages. You may be told, for instance, that units for the air conditioning attached to windows are allowed, while portable appliances being not, due to the peril of fire.
Instead, the main issue of older houses is that their replacement cost would be much higher than the ACV (actual cost value), due to obsolete materials or historical value, maybe having an architectural role, and that’s a big difference. If the home was built using materials no longer available/hard to find, like plaster, resuming the home with those would be overly pricey, even for insurers.
An HO-8 insurance policy comes in handy to deal with the above-mentioned issues.
An H03 policy covers the risk profile of modern houses, that have depreciation on the original cost of purchase, thus it would be cheaper to rebuilt/replace them with newer materials; on the other hand, old houses may have an increment in their value over time, and are considered at a higher risk of undertaking major damage.
H08 also makes eligibility easier: you can qualify with a lower credit score, than the one required by a standard H03, and you can be allowed to if you have had financial troubles or legal penalties, which are negative factors in the eyes of insurers.