What is a homeowners insurance declaration page — and how do you read yours?
It is the page your lender wants, your agent asks for and you have never read. Two minutes with it tells you more about what you actually own than an hour on the phone.
The short answer
Your declaration page is the one-page summary of your policy: who is insured, what property, which coverages, what limits, what deductibles, and who the mortgagee is. It is the document your lender, your servicer and any new agent will ask you for, because it answers every practical question at once.
Read it in four blocks: the coverage limits labelled A through F, the deductibles, the mortgagee and loss payee details, and the endorsements and discounts at the bottom. The endorsements block is the one people skip and the one that has usually changed since last year.
What is deliberately not on it: the exclusions. Those live in the policy form behind the dec page. A declarations page will never tell you that earthquake is excluded or that your roof settles at actual cash value unless you know to look for those specific lines.
The Spokesman-Review, from Office of the Insurance Commissioner data — WA home insurance rates skyrocket
U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Insurance Office — Homeowners insurance costs rising
U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Insurance Office — Homeowners insurance costs rising
No social security number needed. Just a name, an address and a date of birth.
What is a declaration page?
It is the personalized front page of an otherwise standard contract. The policy form behind it is the same document thousands of other people have; the declarations page is where your name, your address, your limits and your price get filled in. That is why it is the page everyone asks for.
Why so many people want a copy of it
Because it proves three things at once: that coverage exists, how much of it there is, and that the lender is named on it. A mortgage servicer, a title company and a new agent all need those same three facts, and this is the only document that carries all three.
How to read yours, block by block
Every homeowners dec page in the country is organized more or less the same way, whichever carrier issued it. Four blocks, in roughly this order, and each one answers a different question. Work down them in order and you will have read the whole thing in about two minutes.
Block one: the coverage limits, A through F
These letters are near-universal. Coverage A is the dwelling, B is other structures, C is personal property, D is loss of use, E is personal liability and F is medical payments to others. B, C and D are often shown as a percentage of A rather than as their own number.
The two to check first
Coverage A, because it should reflect the cost to rebuild rather than what you paid. And Coverage E, because raising personal liability to the next tier usually costs very little and is the only line protecting income you have not earned yet.
Block two: the deductibles
There may be more than one. A flat policy deductible sits alongside percentage deductibles for specific perils — wind, hail, earthquake if you added it. A percentage deductible is calculated against Coverage A, so a small-sounding percentage is a large number on a large house.
Block three: mortgagee and loss payee
This is where your lender is named, with its address and your loan number. It is also the line that goes wrong most often, because it changes whenever your loan is sold and it is the only field on the page that has nothing to do with your house.
Block four: endorsements, discounts and forms
Usually a list of form numbers at the bottom, which is why almost nobody reads it. This is where water backup, service line coverage, scheduled jewelry, a replacement cost endorsement on the roof, and your bundling and alarm discounts appear — or quietly disappear.
What is not on your declaration page
The exclusions. A dec page lists what you bought; the policy form lists what is never covered no matter what you bought. That is not a trick — it is a document doing its job — but it explains why people are surprised at claim time by something that was written down the whole time.
The three that surprise Washington homeowners
- Earthquake. Excluded from a standard policy. It can be added, with a percentage deductible on the building limit.
- Flood. Excluded from every standard homeowners policy, always written separately.
- Wear and tear, and long-term seepage. A pipe that bursts is usually covered; a pipe that has been leaking quietly for a year usually is not.
Replacement cost versus actual cash value
This one does appear on the dec page, in small print, and it changes what a claim pays more than any limit does. Replacement cost pays to replace with new. Actual cash value subtracts depreciation first. Roofs are where carriers most often apply the second one — the OIC glossary defines both.
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How to use it to compare two policies honestly
Price on its own tells you nothing, because two quotes on the same house are almost never the same policy. Put the dec pages side by side and compare six lines. If all six match and one price is lower, that is a real saving. If any of them differ, you are comparing two different products.
| Line to compare | Why it moves the price | The trap |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage A | The single biggest driver of premium | A lower rebuild figure looks cheaper and leaves you short |
| Deductible | Higher deductible, lower premium | A separate wind or quake percentage hidden under a low flat deductible |
| Roof settlement basis | Actual cash value is much cheaper than replacement cost | The saving shows up now, the shortfall shows up at the claim |
| Coverage C limit and sub-limits | Contents coverage and the caps on jewelry, tools and bikes | A generous total with a $1,500 cap on the category you care about |
| Coverage E | Liability limit | Rarely the reason a quote is cheap, and rarely expensive to raise |
| Endorsements | Water backup, service line, scheduled items | The cheaper quote is often the one with none of them |
Where to get a copy
Three places, all of which can usually produce it the same day: your carrier's online account, your agent, or your mortgage servicer, which keeps one on file as proof the house is insured. If you are shopping, the servicer's copy is often the fastest because it is the one nobody has misplaced.
Compare this year's to last year's
This is the highest-value two minutes in the entire subject. Carriers adjust limits and endorsements at renewal and disclose it on this page, not in a phone call. With 48 homeowners rate filings approved in Washington for 2025 alone, ranging from +34% to −5%, no two carriers moved the same way.
What to look for in the diff
A Coverage A that went up with inflation — that is normal and usually good. A deductible that moved. An endorsement that vanished. A discount that expired. Any of those alone is a reason to ask a question before you pay the renewal.
What to do if you do not like the answer
You are not stuck. If the premium is in escrow, switching carriers does not disturb your mortgage. If you are still closing, the binder guide covers what the lender needs. Otherwise, a free quote or the homeowners page is the place to start, and here is how to reach us.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I get a copy of my declaration page?
From your carrier's online account, from your agent, or by asking your mortgage servicer — they keep one on file because they need proof the house is covered. Any of the three can usually send it the same day.
Is the declaration page the same as the policy?
No, and the difference matters at claim time. The declarations page lists who, what and how much. The policy form behind it lists what is covered and, more importantly, what is excluded. The dec page is the summary; the form is the contract.
What does 'Coverage A' mean on my declaration page?
Coverage A is the dwelling — the structure itself. B is other structures, C is personal property, D is loss of use, E is personal liability and F is medical payments to others. Almost every homeowners dec page in the country uses those same letters.
Why does my declaration page show two different deductibles?
Because some perils carry their own. Wind, hail and earthquake are often written with a percentage deductible rather than a flat dollar amount, so a $1,000 policy deductible can sit next to a much larger one for the specific event most likely to damage your house.
My dec page says 'actual cash value' on the roof. Is that bad?
It means a roof claim pays what the roof was worth after depreciation, not what a new one costs. On a twenty-year-old roof that gap is most of the cheque. It is not automatically wrong — it lowers the premium — but you should know it is there.
How often should I actually read this document?
Once a year, at renewal, next to last year's. The two pages side by side show what your carrier changed without a phone call: a limit that did not keep up, a deductible that moved, an endorsement that quietly dropped off.
Keep reading
Sources
- Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner — Consumer insurance glossary (replacement cost, actual cash value, deductible).
- Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner — Complaint comparison tool.
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Insurance Office — Homeowners insurance costs rising, availability declining (analysis of 246 million policies, 2018–2022).
- The Spokesman-Review — WA home insurance rates skyrocket (July 30, 2026; OIC rate filings).
This article is general information about insurance in the state of Washington. It is not legal advice and it is not an offer of coverage. Whether a policy covers a given loss depends on its own wording, its endorsements and its exclusions; read yours, or send it to us and we will read it with you. Anel Galicia is a licensed insurance producer in the state of Washington.