Auto-Owners Homeowners Insurance Review 2024

Auto-Owners offers plenty of ways to customize your policy and save money on home insurance.
Sarah Schlichter
By Sarah Schlichter 
Updated
Edited by Caitlin Constantine

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Auto-Owners Insurance

4.5

NerdWallet rating 
Auto-Owners offers plenty of ways to customize your policy and save money on home insurance

Coverage options

About average

Discounts

Great set of discounts

NAIC complaints

Fewer than expected
insurance-product-card-logo

Auto-Owners Insurance

4.5

NerdWallet rating 
Auto-Owners offers plenty of ways to customize your policy and save money on home insurance

Coverage options

About average

Discounts

Great set of discounts

NAIC complaints

Fewer than expected

About Auto-Owners home insurance

4.5

NerdWallet rating 

Auto-Owners home insurance earned 4.5 out of 5 stars for overall performance. Despite its name, the company covers much more than cars. In fact, Auto-Owners home insurance is worth considering, thanks to a wide variety of coverage options and discounts. Its Homeowners Plus add-on includes coverage for appliance leaks that lead to property damage and wasted food in the event of a power failure.

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Our star ratings are based on consumer complaint data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners; financial strength grades from AM Best; coverage and discounts available; and the overall consumer experience. See our criteria for evaluating home insurance companies.

Our writers and editors follow strict editorial guidelines that ensure fairness and accuracy in order to help you choose the financial products that work best for you. Here is a list of our partners, and here’s how we make money.

Where Auto-Owners stands out

Useful coverage options. Noteworthy endorsements include guaranteed replacement cost for the structure of your home and inland flood coverage, ideal for those in low-risk areas who don’t want to add a separate federal flood insurance policy.

Customer satisfaction. Auto-Owners draws fewer consumer complaints than expected for a company of its size, and it ranked above average for customer satisfaction in the 2023 home insurance study from J.D. Power, a consumer research firm.

Where Auto-Owners falls short

Online access. With Auto-Owners, you’ll need to contact an agent to get a quote or report a claim. (Some insurance companies allow you to complete these tasks online.)

Availability. Auto-Owners sells policies in only half of U.S. states.

State availability

Auto-Owners home insurance is available in 25 states.

Availability may change at any time. Coverage may not be available to all homeowners in a given state.

Auto-Owners home insurance coverage

You can customize your homeowners policy with numerous add-ons, but below are the types of coverage that generally come standard:

Type of coverage

What it does

Pays to repair or rebuild the structure of your home.

Covers damage to unattached structures such as sheds or fences.

Pays to repair or replace personal belongings such as furniture or clothing.

Pays for hotel stays, restaurant meals or other expenses if you have to live elsewhere while your home undergoes covered repairs.

Covers legal expenses and damages if you're responsible for injuries to other people or their property.

Covers injuries to guests in your home, regardless of fault.

The Auto-Owners homeowners insurance policy has all the usual coverage, plus several options you can add to a standard policy:

  • Increased or guaranteed home replacement cost in case your dwelling coverage isn’t enough to repair or rebuild your home.

  • Water backup for damage caused by backed-up sewers or drains.

  • Special personal property to repair or replace your personal items in situations your homeowners insurance doesn't normally cover, like misplacement or stains.

  • Ordinance or law to bring your home up to current building codes after a covered event.

  • Homeowners Plus, a coverage package that pays for damage from appliance leaks and spoiled food after a power outage, among other issues.

  • Equipment breakdown for electrical or mechanical failure of appliances in your home, such as HVAC units or personal computers.

  • Identity theft expense for costs up to $15,000 related to restoring your identity after it has been stolen. Learn more about identity theft insurance.

  • Cyber protection for help recovering lost or corrupted data or if you’re the victim of identity theft.

  • Appliance seepage and leakage to pay for continuous water leakage from a household appliance or interior sprinkler system.

  • Service line for damage to water, electric or other utility lines.

  • Personal property replacement cost coverage to make sure your claim payout is enough to buy brand-new replacements for any stolen or destroyed belongings. (A standard policy pays only the actual cash value of your items, which may not be much for older belongings that have lost value over the years.)

  • Inland flood coverage for homeowners in low- or moderate-risk flood zones. This coverage is more expansive than what’s offered by the National Flood Insurance Program. For example, it includes personal belongings in your basement and will pay for you to live elsewhere if a flood makes your home uninhabitable.

Auto-Owners home insurance rates

Auto-Owners' average home insurance rate is $1,890 per year, according to a NerdWallet analysis. That's less than the national average of $1,915.

Our sample rates are for 40-year-old homeowners with good credit, a $1,000 deductible, $300,000 in dwelling coverage and $300,000 in liability insurance. Your own rates will be different.

Discounts

Auto-Owners offers many discounts, several of which can be obtained with little or, in some cases, no effort. These include:

  • Green discount if you choose paperless billing and online payments.

  • Favorable loss history if you haven’t made a large number of claims.

  • Payment history if you’ve paid premiums on time over the past three years.

  • Advance quote if you request a quote before your policy expires.

  • Mortgage-free if you don’t have a mortgage on your home.

  • Water shut-off system if your home's water supply is automatically turned off when a leak is found.

  • Multipolicy discount if you bundle your home insurance policy with certain Auto-Owners insurance products.

  • Pay-in-full if you pay your annual premium upfront.

  • Protective devices if you install safety equipment like deadbolt locks and smoke detectors.

  • Automatic backup generator if you have a qualifying generator installed.

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Consumer complaints

Auto-Owners had fewer than the expected number of complaints to state regulators relative to its size for home insurance, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Consumer experience

Website: Home insurance quotes aren't available through Auto-Owners' website. If you live in a state where Auto-Owners provides coverage, you’ll need to contact an agent to finalize the rate.

App: The Auto-Owners app is available on Android and iOS. You can use it to pay bills, track claims and view policy documents.

Claims: To file a claim, you must contact an independent agent. Once the claim has been filed, you can track it through the Auto-Owners website or mobile app. For advice, see how to file a home insurance claim.

Customer service: You can contact Auto-Owners at 800-346-0346 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. You can also contact the company by filling out an online form.

The bottom line

Auto-Owners may be a good fit if you live in one of the states it serves and you’re looking to work with an agent to find the right coverage.

Other home insurance companies to consider

Not ready to make a decision? You may be interested in these other homeowners insurance companies:

Current Product

Auto-Owners Home Insurance
Country Financial Home Insurance
Travelers Home Insurance
NerdWallet rating 

4.5

/5
NerdWallet rating 

5.0

/5
NerdWallet rating 

4.5

/5

Complaints to NAIC 

Fewer than expected

Complaints to NAIC 

Far fewer than expected

Complaints to NAIC 

Fewer than expected

Coverage 

About average

Coverage 

About average

Coverage 

About average

Discounts 

Great set of discounts

Discounts 

Great set of discounts

Discounts 

Average set of discounts

Bottom line 

Auto-Owners offers plenty of ways to customize your policy and save money on home insurance.

Bottom line 

Best for those who prefer to have a personal conversation with an agent when choosing coverage.

Bottom line 

Lots of coverage options, decent discounts and a strong online experience.

Frequently asked questions

Auto-Owners has a variety of insurance products, including auto insurance, renters insurance, and term and whole life insurance, among many others.

The only way you can get a quote for homeowners insurance with Auto-Owners is to contact one of its agents.

Yes, Auto-Owners offers coverage for mobile homes. Read more about mobile home insurance.

Methodology

Homeowners insurance star ratings methodology

NerdWallet’s homeowners insurance ratings reward companies for customer-first features and practices. Ratings are based on weighted averages of scores in several categories, including financial strength, consumer complaints, coverage, discounts and online experience. These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes to find the best rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our full ratings methodology for home insurance.

Insurer complaints methodology

NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2020-2022. To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a company’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC. Ratios are determined separately for auto, home (including renters and condo) and life insurance.

Homeowners insurance rates methodology

NerdWallet calculated median rates for 40-year-old homeowners from various insurance companies in every ZIP code across the U.S. All rates are rounded to the nearest $5.

Sample homeowners were nonsmokers with good credit living in a single-family, two-story home built in 1984. They had a $1,000 deductible and the following coverage limits:

  • $300,000 in dwelling coverage.

  • $30,000 in other structures coverage.

  • $150,000 in personal property coverage.

  • $60,000 in loss of use coverage.

  • $300,000 in liability coverage.

  • $1,000 in medical payments coverage.

We made minor changes to the sample policy in cases where rates for the above coverage limits or deductibles weren’t available.

These are sample rates generated through Quadrant Information Services. Your own rates will be different.

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