Hippo Home Insurance Review 2024

Hippo has temporarily stopped selling new home insurance policies.

“These actions are temporary as we evaluate catastrophic risks, geographical diversification, enhanced underwriting and rate actions for the Hippo Home Insurance Program (HHIP),” Hippo CEO Rick McCathron said in a statement.

A Hippo spokesperson stressed that the pause on policy sales is temporary. The information below can help you decide if Hippo is a good fit for your home insurance needs once it is selling policies again.

Hippo offers home and condo insurance policies through its insurance partners such as Spinnaker, a property and casualty insurer.

For homeowners interested in other policies such as auto insurance, Hippo connects consumers with one of its many insurance partners.

Hippo also sells:

• Condo insurance
• Homeowners association insurance
• Landlord insurance

Hippo provides all the standard types of homeowners insurance you need for solid protection. It also includes a smart-home monitoring kit and home maintenance check-up service with its basic home insurance policies.

Dwelling coverage: This pays to repair or rebuild your house if it’s damaged by a problem covered by the policy, like a fire or tornado.

Other structures coverage: If a structure that’s not attached to your home—a fence or shed, for instance—is damaged, this pays to fix or replace it.

Liability coverage: Liability home insurance pays for property damage and injuries you accidentally cause to others. The cost of your legal defense if you are sued over a covered incident is also covered.

Personal property coverage: This pays to replace or repair your personal items, such as furniture and clothes, if damaged by an incident listed in the policy.

Additional living expenses: Also called loss of use, additional living expenses coverage pays the costs of things like meals, hotels and pet boarding if you can’t live in your house after it’s damaged by a problem covered by the policy.

Hippo Smart Home: Hippo offers complimentary home monitoring systems to detect water leaks, carbon monoxide, smoke and motion to protect your home against potential loss. If you keep the devices activated, you earn a smart home discount on your insurance premium each year.

Hippo Home Care: Hippo customers get access to professionals who can answer your questions about home maintenance. From quick plumbing fixes to outdoor upkeep, you can connect with an expert via phone, video or email to talk through your problem.

Related: What does homeowners insurance cover?

In addition to the core types of homeowners insurance, Hippo offers a bunch of optional endorsements that you can add to a policy for an extra cost.

• Computers: Computers and related storage devices covered up to $10,000.
• Equipment breakdown: If your electrical equipment, TV, appliances, heating or air conditioning system breaks down suddenly, this coverage helps pay the costs to repair or replace it. Coverage is up to $100,000 for home equipment up to 15 years old, with a $500 deductible. For equipment older than 15 years, coverage is capped at $1,500.
• Extended replacement cost for dwelling coverage: This increases your dwelling coverage limit by 25% to 50%, depending on which amount you choose, in case the cost of rebuilding your house is higher than expected. For example, after a disaster, materials and labor are in demand and can suddenly increase in cost.
• Home office: This provides up to $10,000 in coverage to replace or repair office equipment, such as printers, computers and cellphones.
• Jewelry and watches: Covers up to $5,000 for stolen jewelry, watches, furs, precious and semi-precious stones.
• Mortgage payment protection: If your home becomes uninhabitable, this coverage provides up to $1,500 a month, for up to 12 months, toward your mortgage payments.
• Ordinance or law: This helps pay for the extra costs incurred if you rebuild or repair your home and need to meet new building codes.
• Service line: This coverage pays repair costs for lines such as electrical or sewer that come into your house from the street. It provides up to $10,000 for homes up to 50 years old. For homes older than that, coverage is capped at $2,500.
• Water backup: If your home or belongings are damaged by water from drains or sewers that overflow after a backup this can help pay for repairs and replacements. You can get up to $20,000 worth of coverage.
• Workers compensation: This covers medical bills if someone you pay to work at your home, such as a gardener or babysitter, is injured on your property.

Visit Forbes Advisor’s list of best home insurance companies if you aren’t seeing the coverage that fits your needs.

Hippo homeowners insurance is underwritten by Spinnaker Insurance Co., which has a low level of complaints made to state insurance departments about homeowners insurance compared to the industry average. Still, its level of complaints is higher than many top competitors, including Allstate, Farmers, Liberty Mutual and State Farm.

When buying Hippo insurance you can choose any combination of home insurance coverage types you want, but Hippo also groups its offerings into three tiers to make it easy to find a combination.

Hippo Essentials:

• Extended replacement cost coverage up to 25%
• $5,000 water back up
• Computer and home office coverage, each up to $8,000
• Jewelry and watches coverage up to $2,000
• $200,000 in liability insurance

Hippo Best Value — includes everything in Essentials, plus:

• Replacement cost coverage for personal property
• Service line coverage up to $10,000
• $10,000 in water back up
• $300,000 in liability insurance

Hippo Expanded Protection — includes everything in Essentials, plus:

• 50% extended replacement cost coverage
• $10,000 in home office
• $20,000 water backup
• $500,000 in liability insurance

If you’re interested in Hippo insurance, you can request a quote in one of three ways:

• On Hippo’s website
• Through a Hippo insurance agent
• Through Hippo’s network of home builders such as Lennar and mortgage partners like PennyMac during the home-closing process.

Affinity discount

This applies to customers who purchase a Hippo home insurance policy through a group such as your former college or a membership club.

Bundle with Metromile car insurance

If you buy pay-per-mile car insurance from Metromile and purchase a Hippo homeowners insurance policy, you can save with a bundling discount.

Hail-resistant roof discount

This is a discount for installing eligible impact-resistant roofing materials.

HOA discount

If your homeowners association (HOA) qualifies, you could be eligible for a discount.

Loss-free discount

If you go three to five years without filing a homeowners insurance claim, you can be eligible for a home insurance discount.

New buyer discount

If you bought a home within 12 months prior to buying a Hippo home insurance policy, you could save on money.

Smart home discount

When installing smart home devices like smart monitoring systems, you could save money on your home insurance policy. Hippo helps by sending new customers a basic home monitoring kit.

Theft protection and safety device discounts

You could qualify for a discount if you install a theft prevention device, live in a neighborhood with security staff or presence, or have a theft alarm that’s monitored 24/7. You also get a price break if you have fire extinguishers, a water-leak detection device, burglar alarm, fire alarm, sprinkler system deadbolt or smoke alarm.

Homeowner insurance policies provided by Hippo do not cover liability claims caused by dogs with a prior bite history or by dogs classified as the following breeds:

• Akita
• Alaskan Malamute
• Cane Corsos
• Chow
• Doberman
• German Shepherd
• Great Dane
• Husky
• Pit bull or pit bull mix
• Presa Canario
• Rottweiler

Related: Dog breeds banned by home insurance companies

Hippo was founded in 2015 and sold its first policy in 2017. Hippo’s mission is to provide coverage combined with smart technology and easy access to home professionals to help customers care for their homes.