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  History of the Homeowners Policy
The homeowners policy was invented in the late 1950's by Philadelphia based Insurance Company of North
America (INA). Prior to 1960 life was more simple and most people carried only Fire Insurance on their home.
Purchasing Personal Liability was nearly unheard of because people rarely sued their neighbor. Those that had
a need purchased a separate policy. INA designed the Homeowner Policy around the needs of the time by
combining Fire insurance with a rather simple Personal Liability coverage. They had a couple of versions of the
Homeowner Policy and a few endorsements to accommodate the more affluent. Don't laugh, but a $15,000 home
qualified for the better Homeowner version.

The postwar building boom allowed more people to become property owners and as a result had more assets at
risk to a variety of property perils and the peril of negligence associated with trips and fall on your property.
Holes in the Homeowners policy soon became apparent and new endorsements were designed to fill those gaps
but these endorsements were not always included in the basic policy. People think the Homeowner Policy
covers everything that can happen to their property and all types of liability claims. This thinking is the cause
of these surprises.