Homeowners Insurance Explained
You know you need homeowners insurance to protect your home and your belongings. But do you know how much to buy, what it covers, and how to save on your premiums?
How Much Homeowners Insurance Should You Buy?
You need to consider two major factors:
* How much it would cost to replace your home if it were completely destroyed. You can get an estimate from a local builder or real estate agent to figure out this amount.
* How much it would cost to replace your belongings. Doing an inventory and totaling up the value of everything you own will help you determine this amount.
What Does Your Homeowners Policy Protect You Against?
Your homeowners insurance policy protects your home and your belongings against damage from:
* Wind and hail
* Explosions
* Fire and lightning
* Vandalism and theft
* Smoke and plumbing leaks
It also protects you if someone is injured on your property, and it pays for your living expenses if you need to live somewhere else while your home is being repaired.
How Can You Save On Your Homeowners Insurance?
There are several ways you can help reduce your premiums:
* Keep your credit record clean. People with poor credit pay more for their policy than those with good credit.
* Get discounts. You may qualify for discounts if you’re a non-smoker or a senior citizen, or if you install smoke detectors, sprinkler systems, or deadbolts in your home. Ask your insurer about all the discounts you qualify for and include them in your policy.
* Set your deductible as high as you can afford. The higher your deductible, the lower your premium.
* Shop rates on an insurance comparison website. Homeowners rates can vary dramatically from company to company. You can get rate quotes from multiple A-rated companies just by filling out a simple form on an insurance comparison website. On the best comparison websites, you can even talk with experts online to get answers to your questions and advice on how to save money on your premiums (see link below).
Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/homeowners-insurance.html or click on the following link to get homeowners insurance rate quotes from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can also get more tips in their articles section.
Watch the video related to Homeowners insurance
Eddie is most definitely flirting with disaster when he tries to date a woman much older than him. Meanwhile, Steve is causing Carl’s homeowner insurance to skyrocket. … Spin Off African American Family Sitcom Nerd Steve Urkel
Help answer the question about Homeowners insurance
About Author
The authors, Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecker, have spent 30 years in the insurance and finance industries, and have written a number of articles that explain homeowners insurance.
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Posted by American Car Insurance on August 10th, 2009 filed in homeowners insurance | 18 Comments »
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18 Responses to “Homeowners Insurance Explained”
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August 10th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Right in your ugly face.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
i bet ur ass can blow u up too
August 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Oh, bummer.
Well, to answer the first question . . . the executor of the estate is an insured, while the estate is being settled, along with the estate of the deceased. Vacancy does become an issue, so likely the company will be cancellling or nonrenewing the policy, but it DOESNT MATTER. More on that . . .
HOWEVER, homeowners policies aren't transferrable, so HER policy is irrelevant, if she quit claim deeded the house to YOU. YOU need your OWN policy. Her policy doesn't cover YOUR house. So right now, the house is uninsured. The policy doesn't transfer – not automatically, not with effort. You have to buy your own policy.
For a vacant property policy, it's EXPENSIVE. And the coverage isn't very broad. Contact a local agent who sells Foremost Insurance – http://www.foremost.com – they have the BEST price for vacant properties.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
It’s not a scam. It’s hard to know what your agent was thinking when he or she said that. The insurance company is obligated to pay for damage to your dwelling caused by any number of things, such as fire, wind, ice, or snow. Depending on where you live, damage from certain things might not be covered, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. The lender requires insurance to protect its investment in the home. You can read more about homeowners insurance here: http://www.homeownerswiz.com
August 11th, 2009 at 1:06 am
The declarations page of your insurance policy – the document that details exactly what coverages you do and do not have – list all of the endorsements on your policy. Included with the decs page should be a few pages of pretty small print defining all of the terms used on the decs page.
As far as the item numbers go, there are two possibilities. Some of those are going to be spelled out by the state insurance commission and used state-wide. Others are going to be essentially arbitrary names for endorsements that are specific to your insurance company in that state, e.g. the "HA-300 IL" item is almost certainly an endorsement for coverage in Illinois.
As far as web pages, your best and probably only bet is to look at your policy information online through your insurance company's website. There is not likely to be a listing anywhere else for what are probably mostly internal numbering systems.
If you can't find the information anywhere else, you can always call your insurance provider. Their customer service reps will be able to explain everything in detail.
August 11th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Ludicrous speed!!!
August 11th, 2009 at 9:04 am
what is the name of the song that Eddie was singing,and originally sang by whom?
August 11th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I’ll bet Carl would’ve loved to shoot Urkel but I know he wouldn’t dare do that.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Replacement cost pays more, and is more expensive.
Replacement cost means, whatever it costs to replace with like kind and quality. Actual cash value means, whatever it costs to replace with like kind and quality, LESS DEPRECIATION FOR AGE.
Example: You have a laptop computer that's stolen from your home. These things depreciate fast – like in two years, they depreciate to NOTHING. So, Replacement cost might be $1500 – but actual cash value is $300.
Different items depreciate at a different rate.
Market value is yet a THIRD valuation. For the house itself, it means "what it would cost to buy it, used". MOST of the time, for older houses, market value is significantly LESS than replacement value. Not a problem if your whole house burns down, but very few losses are total losses. Where you have a problem, is if you have a kitchen fire. The fire damage might be $30,000. Now, if the whole policy amount is "market value", well, your market value might be $50,000. You can be darned sure the insurance company isn't going to pay $30,000 on a policy like that for a kitchen fire.
So BEST case scenario, you'll get "we'll fix it up sort of ok". Drywall instead of plaster, paint instead of wallpaper, no fancy trims, no fancy countertops, no custom anything. Vinyl tile floor to replace that linoleum. It's NOT going to match the rest of the house, might not even match THAT ROOM.
Worst case scenario – you have a loss to 25% of the house, they pay 25% of the policy limit – leaving you with thousands in damages that you have to come up with to fix.
You need to talk to the selling agent to have them explain exactly HOW that market value policy is going to cover a partial loss.
August 11th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I understand your frustration, but you should be upset with your agent moreso than with the company. If you knew that you wanted the policy to cancel at renewal, and you notified your agent of this, the agent should either have submitted the cancellation request on your behalf or should have notified you that you needed to provide a written notice of intent to cancel. The company was not properly notified, so they extended coverage until May and now feel entitled to the money.
Get the Certificate of Insurance from your new company, give it to your old agent and tell him/her to fix it because he wronged you.
You are right to be upset, but be upset with the agent. He's (she's) the liason between you and the company and should have properly notified you of any necessary steps to set up your policy to cancel upon renewal.
I'm an agent, and I still blame the agent for this mess.
Edit:
To answer your additional questions:
What's the worst that can happen: They send you to collections and blemish your credit.
Your new coverage started March 14th, so if you faxed that in your old company would most likely charge you for premium from March 1st to March 14th. They would do this because they wouldn't want to retroactively assign you a gap in coverage. If they got prior notice of the cancellation (which thanks to your agent, they didn't get) then they wouldn't care if you cancelled and had no coverage. But they won't want to go back in time and give you a gap because you know you didn't have a claim.
It is their business because you're asking them not to charge you for coverage they technically provided you with. Trust me, I empathize with you, but if you don't want them to charge you for coverage through May, make your old agent fix the mess by taking the blame or give them the evidence that you got new insurance.
They never got notice that you wanted to cancel your policy, so they covered your home until May before cancelling you for nonpayment. If you'd had a fire, they would have covered you. You do owe them this money unless you can get them to agree to retroactively cancel the policy to an earlier date.
Make the agent admit his mistake, and tell the insurance company it was his fault, that you told him you wanted to policy to cancel at renewal. Maybe they'll just let the whole thing go. Otherwise, jump through their hoops or get sent to collections. Sorry.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
August 11th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
The change is actually an extension. In late 2006 Congress passed a law allowing a rather strange one-year deduction of premiums for private mortgage insurance (PMI). This was a scrap thrown to PMI insurers who had been complaining that their businesses were suffering from the number of homeowners opting for piggyback mortgages. These simultaneous second mortgages were used for a house down payment, eliminating the need for PMI and providing an additional mortgage interest deduction.
This deduction required that the policy be taken out and paid for in 2006 (tough luck for homeowners struggling with premiums from earlier years,) was for home acquisition not refinancing, and the deduction was available for 2006 only. Now this deduction has been extended for 2007 provided that the PMI contract was entered into in 2006 or 2007 and that payments for the more recent year were made before 2008. PMI premiums are treated as mortgage interest on Schedule A so taxpayers must itemize in order to claim the deduction and the taxpayer’s gross income must be under $50,000 for an individual or $100,000 for a couple filing jointly. A portion of this deduction may be available for higher earners; again, consult the regulations or your tax advisor.
August 11th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Your condo probably has property & liability insurance that protects the association if there a fire, water damage, or if someone falls in the hallway & sues them. However, their insurance probably does not protect YOU if someone steasl your stuff or someone is injured at a party in your place. Check with the condo association on this. They will know. You probably need to get your own condo policy, which is not expensive. Good Luck.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
eddie really got swole over the years
August 12th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Isn’t the insurance guy George Wyner? He appeared 3 times on Perfect Strangers!
August 12th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
PLease, Eddie. Don’t try to sing. My ass makes better noise. Simon Cowell would bounce your ass.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
lol “We can’t stop. it’s to dangerous.” love the way he says that.
August 14th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Well, they usually don't change their mind, it's usually a term and/or condition of a NEW loan, and they usually DON"T make you escrow, unless you have less than 20% equity in the property. They do that, because they want to make sure that the property taxes and insurance get paid every year.
When you close, you will have to PREPAY 12 months of insurance. You will need to have a paid receipt. So if you only have two months left, you'll have to prepay the renewal, instead.
You do not pay interest on escrowed funds.