Should You Make a Claim on Your NC Homeowner’s Insurance?

In the wake of one of the worst storms in centuries, many homeowners may be shocked to learn filing a claim on their insurance may actually hurt them over time.

Paying for the repairs out of pocket should be weighed against filing a claim. Too many claims in one year will send a red flag to your insurance company causing them concern and possibly canceling your policy. 

 

Every time a claim is made or even inquired about it goes into an industry database called Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, or CLUE. This information is available to most insurance companies, making it harder for the consumer to obtain insurance from another company after being dropped.

Under federal law, you can get one free copy of your report every 12 months at ChoiceTrust. You can also look at claims made on specific properties. If you are considering purchasing a home, you should check its history. For a fee, you can obtain a“Home Seller’s Disclosure Report” detailing the insurance loss history of the home you are considering. Knowing this information before your purchase can help you decide if you are making an informed decision. Too many claims on a property, can affect the rates of your homeowner’s insurance even if the claims aren’t yours.

A Word about Adjusters

You should receive the same claims adjustment whether you use an independent or the insurance company’s claims adjuster. The adjuster is a licensed professional who is trained to find the source of damage. They report to the insurance company their findings and if the claim is legitimate. If you do not agree, you can dispute your claim with your insurance company.

 

At Marshall Insurance, we are here to help you with your insurance needs. As a long standing independent insurance agency, we are committed to helping our clients in not only finding the best rates but helping in times of need.

Insurance and Your Dog

Dog bites are no fun, especially if it was your dog that did the biting. You can be faced with a lawsuit and will need to defend your dog even if the bite was due to someone provoking your dog. Do you have insurance coverage for it? In a lot of cases, your homeowners insurance should cover damages like that. But there are some cases when it might not.

There are some breeds of dogs that are considered more aggressive and dangerous than other breeds in the insurance world. If you own a dog, it is important that you know if he will be covered or not if he bites someone. It is hard to defend a dog that falls into the aggressive category, so a lot of insurance companies have decided to consider them a higher risk. You may need to have increased limits of liability on your homeowners policy if you own a dog that is on the list.

The list is quite extensive and contains about 75 different breeds including Rottweilers, Akitas, Alaskan Malamutes and American Bulldogs.  Talk with us to see if your carrier follows the list when determining what type of insurance we can offer you. Your current homeowners insurance may not be enough to protect you if your dog decides to bite someone – even if it was in defense of you, himself, or the household.

If you never mentioned your dog to us before, you will want to do it now. You don’t want to find out later that you will not be covered under your policy if something goes wrong. If your current policy isn’t enough, find out how to get more. Protect your dog and your finances by having the right insurance policy.   

Smoke Detector Safety

Most home fire deaths happen in the middle of the night between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. A smoke detector can save your life by waking you and giving you time to escape. When purchasing a smoke alarm, look for one that is accepted by an independent testing facility such as Underwriters Laboratories or Factory Mutual.

Location, Testing and Maintenance!

The best place for your smoke alarms:
•On every level of your home, including the basement and workshop.
•Outside every bedroom.
•On the ceiling or on the wall, 6 to 12 inches below the ceiling. Keep detectors away from air vents.

Check the alarm batteries once a month by pressing the test button with your finger. The batteries should be replaced once a year.

You should clean the alarm by following the manufacturer’s instructions. The grillwork on the detector should be vacuumed periodically to keep it dust-free.

Preventing Nuisance Alarms To prevent false alarms, move the detector away from a kitchen or bathroom. You may also want to consider purchasing a smoke alarm, like a photoelectric, that’s less sensitive to common causes of false alarms. Some smoke alarms also are equipped with a silencing feature, so that nuisance alarms can be stopped quickly and easily

Insurance Guide for Older Homes

Owning an older home can be a dream for many people. These homes were built in prime locations, contain larger rooms than many newer homes, and have loads of charm. But people who own homes 50 or 100 years old or more may find themselves running up against some nightmares with insurance that they didn’t bargain for when they fell in love with the house.

The majority of mortgage lenders require home owners to have home insurance as a condition of their mortgage, but older homes have many problems that make them a bigger risk to insure. Many times, elements of the house may be so worn out that insurance companies will refuse to insure the house without some repairs or replacements.
“Depending on the age of a home, most insurance company require the parts of the home to be updated,” says Brian Boak, an underwriter who has worked in personal insurance for 25 years and works for Singer Nelson Charlmers. “Depending on the company, if these are not updated, they may not insure the location due to the additional risk.”

Even if insurance companies don’t outright refuse to cover your home, insurance premiums for older homes can shoot through that outdated roof. With an older home comes an increased chance for damages caused by parts not functioning properly, and insurance companies don’t take on these risks without charging you more.

Replacement costs for homes that are considered antique or historic are also higher since specialized materials and labor are required to restore the home to historical accuracy.
A home inspection can help reveal the age of components of your home, whether you’ve just put in an offer or have lived in your home for years. Many insurers will perform their own inspections to determine if the home is insurable, particularly if the house has a high replacement cost.

“Some companies rely on their agent to provide the replacement cost; some companies hire an outside inspection service to do either an exterior inspection or a full interior inspection. Some companies do the inspections themselves,” Boak says. “The higher the replacement cost the more likely (and desired) that you will get a comprehensive inspection inside and out.”

Biggest problems for insuring older homes

Older homes across the country face many of the same problems that scare insurers away. Inspectors will be looking for these issues and fixing them will likely bring your premium down significantly.

• The roof: Roofs typically have a life expectancy of about 25 years, according to Boak, so if you have a roof older than that, your chance of a leak is greater. And with water damage being so serious, old roofs can be a sign to insurers that your premium should be raised.
• The electrical system: Most older homes were originally outfitted with small circuit breaker boxes. This combined with old fuses and old wiring can become a problem when faced with the demands of today’s home, Boak says. Air conditioning, electric heat, microwaves, and electric ovens and stoves weren’t used when the home was built, so the extra workload on the electrical system can increase the chance of a fire.
• The plumbing system: Besides plumbing problems being unpleasant to live with, they can also cause leaks and water damage. The invasive nature of repairing water damage makes old plumbing systems costly to insure.

Finding the right policy

If you care about preserving the original features of your home, you’ll want to make sure your policy will pay for the materials that are no longer standard.

Lath and plaster: Older homes often had walls of lath and plaster instead of sheetrock. “Depending on your insurance company they may not pay to replace your lath and plaster walls as they may say that sheetrock is equivalent (and less expensive for them),” Boak says. “Lath and plaster is much more expensive and if you want to keep your old home accurate, you want lath and plaster. Ask your broker what your company will do.”

Lumber measurements: Another consideration to make is your home’s lumber. Today, two-by-fours are actually only 1.5 by 3.5. If you have an old home with “full dimensional” lumber, Boak says, many insurance companies may want to replace it with the cheaper “equivalent,” but you’ll want the original dimensions if you’re trying to preserve the home’s accuracy.

Other added costs to consider are custom molding, solid core doors, and trim that must be custom-made. Anyone with a historic home should make sure they find a company who will insure them for the full replacement value for original features. “You want to make sure you have a true guaranteed replacement cost,” Boak says. “Many companies have replacement cost but it is capped at 20% or 25% above the insured value. You want a company that will rebuild the home exactly how it was with all the quality you had, regardless of the cost.”
Watch out for any cash value policies. These will only pay for what’s damaged including depreciation, so you could be covered for much, much less than you need or even realized with one of these policies.

Buying an old home

So what do you do if you’re house hunting and have fallen in love with an old house? Don’t rush into anything!

Call us before closing on your mortgage. By giving yourself and us time to shop around for home insurance before closing, we can work together to see what you can reasonably expect to pay in premiums, find the best prices, and maybe even stumble on some discounts. You may find that the replacement cost is going to be significantly higher than what you’re paying for the house and that the house isn’t affordable for you because of insurance costs.

Getting quotes from insurance companies will probably also help you find the problems with the house. If you find a few small problems during an inspection, you can budget for it. And if you discover that the whole electrical system and plumbing system need to be replaced, you can walk away.

If you do decide to go ahead with buying a house that needs repairs to make it insurable or bring down your premiums, consider asking the current owner to make the fixes. “If items are old and you are buying the home, you would either want to have the current owner discount the price of the home or update the items for these improvements you will need to make ,” Boak says. “Or expect to add that cost into your budget.”

Tips for home owners

If you already own an old house, you may worry about your insurer raising your premiums significantly or even dropping your coverage altogether. Many insurance companies change the status of your coverage if you file a big claim or several claims in a row. So if your roof gives out and you file a claim, you could be hurting your chances of continuing to be insured.

To avoid this problem, it’s best to try to stay ahead of all repairs and updates if you can. They can certainly be costly, so keep an eye out for warning signs of problems so you can choose what absolutely needs to be fixed first.

Roof: Roofs really aren’t made to last more than 20 or 25 years, but even younger roofs might need replacing. Check for several shingles lifting up, broken, or gone, and then go into your attic to see if you can see any pinholes of light or new water stains.
Electrical system: Look out for flickering lights when you turn on an appliance, switches and plates that are hot to the touch, two-prong outlets, burning plastic smell at switches and outlets, and improper fuses.
Plumbing system: Check out any exposed pipe in your house and look for discoloration, dimpling, stains, and flaking, which could mean your pipes are corroding. It’s a good idea to also look at the color of your water, especially after it’s been sitting in the pipes for a while — try filling your bathtub after a vacation. If it’s brown or yellow, there is probably rust in your pipes.

Old homes can be beautiful investments if you’re prepared to take care of them and keep them up to modern safety standards. If you don’t have the time and money to dedicate to updating your systems, you could find yourself buried under insurance premiums that may cost as much as the repairs in the long run.

Contact Us Today!

Phone: 704-684-0082

E-mail:  gary@marshallins.net

Website:  http://www.marshallins.net

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