3 Other Things You Might Not Realize Are Covered

Insurance companies definitely aren’t just throwing in coverage for things that will never happen; in fact, there’s some really great clauses for things that happen all the time – or at least have a greater chance of happening — that you might be surprised to see in the fine print.

• MOLD – “What?! Lies! Homeowner’s insurance never covers mold!” Aha! You are wrong, sir! That is a myth! It’s true that some insurance companies don’t include coverage for mold, but it isn’t the standard. In fact, many homeowner’s find this out after they’ve already paid a pretty penny for mold damage and could have had the whole thing covered!

Of course, there are stipulations for mold coverage, but they’re reasonable and usually have to do with what caused the mold. If your policy covers things like busted pipes, then the mold is covered. If there’s a flash flood, then it’s not. Also, if mold occurs as a result of neglect, it won’t be covered.

• DOG BITES – “That’s a useless clause. My dog would never do that.” Don’t you think that’s what every person who’s ever had a dog bite someone has said at some point? Every year, 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs, according to the CDC – that results in nearly 800,000 injuries that need medical attention.

And – guess what? 50% of that number take place on the dog owner’s own property. Bill Wilson, from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America states, “Dog bites are probably the single most common cause of liability claims on a homeowner’s policy. Most insurance policies will cover the medical bills for someone bit by a dog—or a cat, snake, or other domestic animal, for that matter—and even pay lost wages if the person can’t work.”

• METEORS – “What?! What good is that?! It’s not like meteors fall every other day!” I’ll give you that one – meteors don’t fall every other day, but they do fall occasionally, and the clause that includes meteors also includes all other things that can fall from the sky. This includes things like tree limbs, debris from airplanes, and as mentioned, meteors.

Stipulations for this clause include that the damage must be solely the result of whatever fell on your house – if you let termites eat through your house and a twig fell and knocked the whole thing over… you won’t be covered.

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Steps to Better Homeowners Insurance

3 Steps to Better Homeowners Insurance,

Florida Homeowner Insurance

My client Barbara was sure she couldn’t save any more money. “It’s really tight,” she told me as we scoured her budget. Her goal was to save $250 per check into her 401k plan. Right now she was saving $210. We only needed $40.

Steps to Better Homeowners Insurance

She was correct. From everything she showed me on paper, it was really, really tight.

Barbara didn’t waste money. She diligently saved into her retirement plan at work, brought a brown bag lunch every day, and was proud of her “dumb” phone. If she could make calls and get voicemail it was good enough for her. No need for a big contract to play games or get email.

I couldn’t find fault in her grocery budget or entertainment expenses. She enjoyed spending her vacation time in a small garden at home. This even helped with bills (and it was nice getting the fresh zucchini from her every year….a benefit of being her financial advisor). Hell, I wanted to help Barbara find money to save because she deserved to get out more!

So, I had to dig deeper. Where did we find money?


Her homeowners coverage.

It wasn’t a ton of cash, but based on her overall expense, finding $40 per month was like a windfall. Here is what we did.

1) Shopped around. This was the easy part that everyone knows. In fact, Barbara had already shopped six months earlier. What she hadn’t done was checked with her credit union to see if she could get a discount through them. She could. Other clients of mine found discounts through their union, workplace, religious group, or school.

2) Asked for discounts. Once we found a cheaper insurer, Barbara secured lower rates because she was a senior citizen and because she had a home security system. In fact, Barbara hadn’t been using a home security system because she thought it was too expensive. She called a company to have it turned on, and was surprised to find that it paid for itself with the policy discount. She could feel safer and not raise her budget!

3) Paid in advance. The insurance company she chose offered two rate plans: monthly or every six months. By paying at once, Barbara was able to lower her expense even more. How did she afford that cost? Because she had an emergency fund she took the money from that account. Then she paid back into the emergency fund every month. Although she’s paying her “homeowners” account monthly, because they only receive a check semiannually, she receives a better rate.

She could have bundled her coverage with other assets (auto insurance, for example), but that wouldn’t have saved her money in this case. The biggest key to her success was to ask each company what discounts she was eligible to receive, what she had to do to get them (such as activating her home security, or, for another client, getting rid of the trampoline), and whether there were special rates for paying early. Because she asked those questions, Barbara was happier, safer at home, and a little richer.

….and she was a nice source of referrals to her financial advisor! (Bonus for me!)

Any other tips you used to get lower cost or better homeowners coverage?

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Florida Homeowner Insurance - How to Insure Your Pets under Homeowners

Florida Homeowner Insurance - How to Insure Your Pets under Homeowners

How to Insure Your Pets under Homeowners

A tip on pet insurance. Most people or most families in the United States have some form of animal, a dog, a cat. However, we would suggest that before you get a pet, that you contact your insurance agent and make sure it's an acceptable breed of animal. A lot of insurance companies do not like Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Dobermans, German Shepherds, Akitas, for the fear of the biting history

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Florida Homeowners Insurance-Insurance Company Ratings

Frank: One of things to consider when buying insurance is the strength of the company. There's basically two different rating agencies. There's a company called A.M. Best, and there's a second company called Demotech. A.M. Best is the one most often used on a national basis. They require five years of business before they'll give you a rating.

Florida Homeowners Insurance-Insurance Company Ratings

Kevin: Right. And it's extremely important that you understand what the rating of your company is or that you have an insurance agent who is willing to explain to you the importance of your insurance company's rating and why that matters is because when you have widespread damage, catastrophic losses like we have in Florida when hurricanes come through. These are not isolated incidents. This is not one house getting blown down. This is damage across counties, across communities that can add up to be millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of damage. And when that potential is there, you need to be sure that you've got an insurance company that is financially strong enough and has the infrastructure to be able to handle that many claims at once and to be able to pay you what you think you're supposed to be getting when you buy the insurance from them in the first place. An insurance agent can help you understand that by simply going over what the rating of the company is and telling you a little about how that company does business.

Frank: A couple of things to think of. In Florida, we basically have two types of companies. We have the national companies, which are the household names: Metropolitan, State Farm, Travelers, Allstate, Nationwide. Most of these companies really now have stopped taking on new policies, so what you have is you have some regional ones, and you have two sets of regionals. You have regionals that started after Hurricane Andrew. Now, they've been around now for about 15 years. Those companies, what's nice about them is they've been through the '04 hurricane season. They have a very good handle on how to get your claims fixed and resolved in a timely manner. What you have now is, after the '04 and '05 hurricane seasons, there's a lot of new startup companies that are new. They really don't have that experience to go through a hurricane. I like to equate it to directions. If you go somewhere once on a first time, you may get lost. The second time, it's a little easier. The third and the fourth, it gets a little easier. Probably no problem. When you have a hurricane and there's widespread damage, you don't want it to be the first time your company's ever had that experience. So, you want them to know how to handle this, not going through it for the first time. So, again, I would really look at the company, ask the agent how long he or she has represented this company, how did they do during the '04 and '05 hurricane season, have they had any experience in this? I think it's important.

Kevin: It's extremely important because the last thing you want is to have your claim getting delayed or to have your claim not being settled to the way you think it's supposed to be settled because the insurance company can't keep its house in order. That's the last thing that you as a policy holder want to hear after the worst has happened. So, it's a good idea to talk to your insurance agent, find out a little bit of information about the insurance company that they have your policy with, because it's the company that's going to need to be there with the money to help you get your life rebuilt after the worst has happened. It's extremely important to have enough confidence in your insurance company to know that that's going to happen if there is catastrophic damage. And a conversation with your insurance agent is the best way to answer that question.

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Florida Homeowner Insurance - Condo Insurance

On the topic of homeowners, we’d like to talk about condo insurance. There’s a lot of condos in Florida, and Kevin can give us some information.

Florida Homeowner Insurance - Condo Insurance

There are literally hundreds of thousands of people in this state that choose to make their living in a condominium. And what’s unusual about that arrangement versus the standard homeowner's policy that we’ve talked about is, when you move into a condominium, you have to understand what property is in that complex that you are responsible for insuring versus what the association is responsible for insuring, because you’ve got 2 different interests in that property. And what a lot of people don’t realize is how much of the common property is actually the responsibility of the unit owner. Most people don’t realize that. They just assume that they need to have insurance for whatever they bring into the condominium: their furniture, their electronics, their clothing, all their personal items. And that’s true. But if you look at the declarations you signed when you bought the condominium, chances are they’re gonna require that you cover a few more things that you might not known about.

Typically, you’ll see in the condo docs that the condo’s responsible for the drywall, and that’s it. You’re responsible for the paint in. So, if you were gonna rent a shell, and you had to put all your walls up, your doors, your cabinetry, your carpet, your light fixtures, that’s typically what you want to insure on your condo policy. So, you really wanna be careful because, if you have a loss, don’t rely on your condo association to pay for your interior. That’s really your responsibility. It’s a big deal, because there were a lot of claims for condos after 2004 and 2005.

A lot of people buy the condo unit, and they go in, and there’s already fixtures there. There’s already counters there. There’s already cabinets there. There’s already appliances there, and they assume because, they had no control over those items being there or being attached or whatever the case, that means that it’s the responsibility of the association to insure that stuff. If you review the declarations, it clearly states, in some cases, no, the purchaser of the unit is responsible for insuring those things. So, it's extremely important if you buy a condominium or if you are considering buying a condominium, talk with your insurance agent, have them look at the insurance requirements of the condominium declarations that are presented to you and let you know exactly what your responsible for insuring, because it can make a tremendous difference both in the cost of your insurance and how that claim gets paid when the loss happens.

You have to be extremely careful. At one point in time after 2004, a lot of associations decided, especially if they were single story units, then they were gonna change they way they insured it. They were gonna make the whole thing the responsibility of the unit owner, because they couldn’t find insurance. It was too pricey. So, again, you wanna make sure you bring your condo docs, current, not old ones, current ones to your agent, have him review them, make sure you know what your responsible for, and then buy the adequate coverage.

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Florida Homeowner Insurance - About loss of use

Let's talk Florida Homeowner Insurance - About loss of use The next part of the policy that’s extremely important, we call it coverage d. Some call it loss of use. Some call it additional living expenses. It means exactly the same thing. When you have a loss, say during a hurricane that keeps you out of your home for a significant or even a short period of time, there are expenses involved that make sure you can maintain your standard of living while your property is being rebuilt.
Keep in mind, the bank wants their payment every month. So now, you have a mortgage payment plus you may have to rent an apartment. That’s expensive.

About loss of use

Absolutely. To stay in a hotel for weeks or even months-- some friends of mine personally that lived in South Florida when hurricanes Frances and Jeanne came through, both storms 3 weeks apart. That can add so much lag time to the repair of your home, and you have to have a place to stay. You have to have food you can cook and food you can eat. You have to have clothes you can wear. And if all of the above is impossible to do in your daily routine because you lost your house, this is the part of the policy, the important part of the policy. That’s gonna tell you how much the insurance company is going to give you to pay those expenses until you can get back into that house.

Keep in mind, too, insurance companies have taken away some coverage. That used to be 20% of your house value. Example is, say you have $100,000 house, you would have $20,000. Now, you’re seeing some of these companies reduce that down to 10%. So again, look at your policy, see what you have and make sure it’s enough.

And don’t ever underestimate the amount of time it can take to get back into your home after you’ve had a loss. Some of you may remember, you may know people in and other places where the lag time to get back into the house, because maybe contractors weren’t available, maybe materials weren’t available, there’s just no way to know how long it’s gonna take. So, this coverage under your homeowner's policy, it's extremely important that you know exactly how long or how much you're gonna get when you are not able to live in your home.

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What factors should I consider when purchasing homeowners insurance?

Here's a checklist of things you should consider when you purchase homeowners insurance: 

homeowners insurance

Determine the amount and type of insurance that you need. The coverage limit of your house should equal 100% of its replacement cost. If your policy limit is less than 80% of the replacement cost of your home, any payment from your insurance company will be less than the full cost to replace your home. You'll have to pay the rest out of your own pocket. Also, decide if the personal property and personal liability limits are adequate for your needs.

Determine which, if any, additional endorsements you want to add to your policy. For example, do you want the personal property replacement cost endorsement, an earthquake endorsement, or a jewelry endorsement?

Once you've decided on the coverage you want in your homeowners insurance policy, consult us. We'll be able to help you determine if there are any gaps in coverage you might not have been aware of and explain the details of the policy's exclusions and limitations.

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You can do to lower the cost of your homeowners insurance

There are a number of things you can do to lower the cost of your homeowners insurance. The easiest thing to do is get a comprehensive review of your policy and needs from your local agent.

 It's not surprising to find quotes on homeowners insurance that vary by hundreds of dollars for the same coverage on the same home. When you shop, be careful to make sure each insurer is offering the same coverage. Another way to lower the cost of your homeowners insurance is to look for any discounts that you may qualify for. 

You can do to lower the cost of your homeowners insurance

For example, many insurers will offer a discount when you place both your automobile and homeowners insurance with them. Other times, insurers offer discounts if there are deadbolt exterior locks on all your doors, or if your home has a security system. 

Be sure to ask us to look into these discounts for you.Another easy way to lower the cost of your homeowners insurance is to raise your deductible. Increasing your deductible from $250 to $500 will lower your premium, sometimes by as much as five or ten percent.

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Florida Homeowner Insurance - Pools, Fences, Sheds, and Other Structures

The second part of the Florida Homeowner policy, which is also called Coverage B, is other structures. Now, we talked about some examples of other structures that are covered as part of the dwelling. Well, this coverage is what comes into play when you have something on your property that is not directly attached to the dwelling. For example, a shed, or a workshop, or a swing set, or a fence, which tends to be a common source or frustration during a hurricane or some other type of loss.
Yeah. Fence goes fast. The other thing you need to look at now, companies have all tightened and provide a little less coverage. It used to be you got whatever the house amount was-- you got a $100,000 house, you got $10,000 automatically for the contents. Some people complain and say i don’t have anything. Some people didn’t even think about it. But you got to keep in mind that they're no longer giving 10% all the time. Sometimes they’re giving 2%. So, if you had a $100,000-house, and you have a $3,000 fence, you only have $2,000 in coverage. So, you might want to look at those items and make sure there is enough coverage. You know, you’d hate to lose your fence because, again, after a hurricane, it's gonna be more expensive than before the hurricane. The other thing is pools are considered other structures. And people say, “Well, it’s a pool, it’s concrete.” Well, here’s something that happens. Those shingles blow off the roof and fall into the pool. The wind blows the water, and you end up with big tar marks on the bottom of your pool, and now, you need your pool re-finished. So you really wanna check that as well.
Insurance isn’t all about buildings.

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Florida Homeowner Insurance - How much coverage do I need

That’s an exceptional question that you should always ask your insurance agent, “How much coverage do I need?” And the reason that’s extremely important is because, what ends up happening in a lot of cases, people assume that the market value of their home, what they paid for their home, is how much they need to insure it for.

And unfortunately, what you're trying to insure your home for is the cost to repair or replace it if it’s damaged. In 2004, all across the state of Florida, people suffered significant damages from hurricanes, and, as a result, the cost of building materials absolutely skyrocketed.Shortages, too.

Shortages of building materials, and you have no control over that. It’s a completely variable cost. You have no control over it. And what that does is it increases the cost to replace the house that suffered damage. So, for example, a house that you bought 3 years ago could cost significantly more to replace today than you paid for it 3 years ago.

Oh, we heard stories about people that paid $5,000 for a screen enclosure, and now it’s $15,000.

Absolutely, and you hear those stories all the time, and that’s why using the market value as the replacement value-- you have to learn how to separate the two. It’s very difficult to do that because replacement cost is based on so many variable factors, and the way that we always recommend that you determine the replacement cost of your home is to talk to an insurance agent that has up-to-date cost estimation software. 

They have insurance companies that have cost estimation software that will help you determine, hey, what is it gonna cost to get this house back? If I lose this house what is it going to cost me to get this house back today? That’s why this question is extremely important.
How much coverage do I need? Part 2 

One of the big questions people have when they call up and buy homeowner's insurance is, “hey how much coverage do i need?” because it’s a very confusing issue. One of the things, especially if you think about a guy that buys a house on the beach, he’s paying a million dollars. Well, the land was probably $800,000, and the house is $200,000. So, you don’t wanna insure the land and pay premium for the land because it’s not going anywhere. The second thing is, you really wanna make sure you have an accurate replacement value because if you're too low, and in the event of a loss, you're gonna be penalized. And second thing is, if you buy too much, you're gonna be paying more than you should, and you’re raising your hurricanedeductible, and you're gonna pay a lot more out of pocket. So, it’s very important that you do get the right amount.

Absolutely, and it’s extremely important that you check the replacement cost of your home at least annually. Often, it’s important to do that more than annually, and here’s the reason why. Because according to the wall street journal, people in this country love to upgrade their homes. We spent $40-billion in this country upgrading our homes last year. And whether it be that you want to sell the home for more or whether it be because--

Your wife wants to remodel again!

That’s the kitchen that she had to have. Whatever the reason might be, you spend $40-billion upgrading your homes in 2007, that adds a significant cost to the replacement value to the home, because now, you’re replacing those mahogany doors. You’re not getting the fiberglass anymore. Ok? You’re getting back the house that you lost, and the only way to do that is by having adequate coverage at the time of the loss, and that’s why it’s extremely important you meet with your insurance agent, go through the estimation process with them at least once a year, if not more often.

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Florida Homeowner Insurance,Personal Property, Contents

Well, insurance isn't all about buildings. Your homeowner's policy also covers the things inside your home, which some of you may have significant value invested in what’s in your home, meaning things like your furniture, electronics, your clothes.

Homeowner InsuranceE Policy

 People always underestimate the cost to replace a closet full of clothes. If you're sitting there right now thinking, you know what, there might – if you’re a guy – there might be one suit in there that’s worth a thousand dollars, that might cost a thousand dollars to replace. One suit. The ladies might be sitting there thinking about their closets thinking, "I don’t even want to know how much this is gonna cost to replace all of this stuff if we have a fire loss or a hurricane."

I had a girl in my office tell me she was paying $750 for a pair of shoes.

$750 for one pair of shoes. There could be 10 pairs of those shoes! It’s unbelievable. What is inside your home is extremely important that you have it replaced after it’s damaged just as much as it is having your home replaced.

The other thing I would suggest is you take your video camera and go through your house room by room and document what you have. The insurance company is gonna ask you to make a list of everything you lost and the value. You can go in your closet, and you’ll see everything, but you're never gonna remember all those items. If you have a videotape, you can say to the adjuster, “Here sir, this is what I lost.” it makes it a lot easier. It jogs your memory. "Oh, I forgot about that." Everybody remembers their couch, their TV, their stereo. But do you remember the stuff in the drawers? All that kind of stuff. So it is important.

Right. And making a record of it can seem very tedious. It can seem very time consuming, but any information that you can have for the insurance company after you’ve had a loss, any information whatsoever. Whether it be receipts, whether it be serial numbers, warranty information, service contracts, or what’s infinitely better than all of the above, like you said, frank, a video. If you have video evidence of everything that was inside your house, and you keep a copy of that, that will make the insurance company's life so much easier when they’re trying to adjust your claim, and it will help make sure that you get what you lost and not anything less.

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Find Best Homeowners Insurance Rates

It's easy to find homeowners insurance prices with Florida Offers Tool

Homeowners insurance prices

Florida Offers Tool  to help them shop for the best property insurance rates.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has launched a revamped website that lets you compare rates in your area from leading insurance companies.

The website is: www.floir.com/choices.

Just go to the site's map of Florida and click on your county. Then you'll see a pop-up window ranking insurance rates in that area along with companies' contact information.

The website, called CHOICES, is proving very popular. Spokeswoman Brittany Perez says thousands of Floridians are already taking advantage of the information.

"Consumers can click on their respective county, see what sort of insurance company options are available and they can find the contact information for those companies all in one spot. So they can look between the different choices, compare the different choices and ultimately find the best choice for their homeowners' insurance coverage."

Perez says homeowners can also see how to earn a property insurance discount for taking certain mitigation measures against hurricanes.

"We have a mitigation form on there that consumers can look at and see what sort of measures they can take to storm-proof their own home and then at the same place they can see all the contact information for insurance companies."

CHOICES, which stands for Consumer HomeOwners Insurance Comparison Electronic System, is the state's next-generation website for comparing insurance rates. It was originally developed as shopandcomparerates.com in 2007.

First Coast News

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The best website to share knowledge about home insurance in foria

florida-homeowner-insurance.blogspot.com -- Blog have a new tool to help them shop for the best property insurance rates.
florida homeowner insurance as launched a revamped website that lets you compare rates in your area from leading insurance companies.

The website is: florida-homeowner-insurance.blogspot.com
Home is where your heart is – along with a healthy chunk of your net worth. Your house is one of your most important investments, so be sure to protect it with a homeowners insurance policy. BLog can help you get great coverage at a great price.

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