As a homeowner, you might be surprised to learn that there are many unusual situations where your regular homeowner's insurance policy will cover your losses. Three such situations are:

• liability coverage for pet bites

• damage to your property from utility malfunctions

• loss of the use of your home for a pre-planned event

Here is more information on each of these situations where your losses may be covered by your home insurance policy:

Liability Coverage for Pet Bites

While you will likely post a photo of your new family pet on social media, what you may not think to do is contact your insurance agent and discuss with them your new pet's liability coverage. This is very important, because if your new pet bites someone, then you want your homeowner's insurance policy to cover the costs of any:

• medical bills

• pain and suffering claims

• disability costs

Additionally, your insurance policy should cover legal bills in the case that you are sued and found to be at fault for any injuries resulting from your pet.

Damage from to Your Property from Utility Malfunctions

Though many utility companies have wonderful customer service and will reimburse you for losses caused by a malfunction of their system, your homeowner's insurance company may cover you for bigger losses, and then recover the funds from the utility company or their liability insurance company.

For instance, you leave town on vacation and the power company has a failure in your area while you are away that you do not know about. If your freezer was just stocked with all of your meat for the winter, then your homeowner's policy will often pay to replace it when the utility company isn't willing to do so. In areas with severe winter weather, this may be a very valuable aspect of homeowner's insurance policies for those that store large amounts of perishable foods in refrigerators and freezers in preparation for the poor weather.

Loss of the Use of Your Home for a Pre-Planned Event

Finally, if you have an event planned at your home, such as a wedding or retirement party, and a fire prevents you from hosting the event as planned, then your homeowner's insurance policy will cover the cost to rent a new venue for your event. This type of coverage is known as "loss of use" and claims can be filed for a variety of event types and emergent situations that prevent the scheduled use of your home.