Home is where the heart is and there is no place like home, they say. We have come a long way from when our ancestors sought refuge shelter of any form, to protect themselves from the elements of nature. Cowering in the face of nature’s unforgiving fury, necessity demanded that man have some sort of structure to help him hide from the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, and to escape annihilation when nature is at her unforgiving best. Houses have gone from being an essential item of purpose to fashion elements. They have undergone a remarkable metamorphosis to go from being a prerequisite for sustaining life to icons of stature and a means of showing off economic affluence. Whatever they maybe and however people choose to view them, the invariable undeniable fact remains that home is the single most indispensable part of society. And what is a home without a house?

In all probability, the amount you spend on your house will be the largest single investment you ever make. Therefore it is imperative that your house in insured so that your investment is protected. Having an estimate of the value of your home will help you decide the insurance amount you have to purchase to fully insure your home. There are many factors that you have to take into consideration when you are working out an estimate of your home’s value. The chief of these being the local construction costs, the area of the house in square foot and the materials used to construct walls and floors. The style in which the house is built, like whether it is colonial style or ranch model plays an important part. The number of bedrooms, bathrooms etc and attached structures like garages and fire places increase the value of your house. Special features like arched architecture, carvings, woodwork etc contribute to raising your house’s value.

It is very important that you do a careful re estimate of the value of your house every year, so as to take into any price fluctuation that might have occurred since the last estimation was done. It is advisable to enlist the services of a professional to do the estimation, and our agents are at hand to provide you with ready assistance. The very first thing is, you have to be well aware of the local building standards and codes and you must make sure that your house is built in accordance with them. If not you will have to revamp your design and change the building materials. The next thing you have to remember is that you should never your house for its current market value because the actual cost of rebuilding your house may be higher, or lower as the case maybe, that the current market price.

When purchasing the insurance from a bank which requires you to buy homeowners’ insurance, in order to cover for the mortgage, make sure that the amount is enough to cover the rebuilding cost also. Should you ever make additions or improvement to your house, check to see if you need to increase your policy limit to help cover the replacement costs. Our agents are at your service to determine whether additional coverage is necessary. We also provide a plethora of online tools to help you make calculations regarding your home insurance. If you are in need of further assistance, you may contact our local agent. We understand that unexpected loss of personal belongings can be financially and morally devastating. So, we are providing the homeowners, Townhouse, Condo and Renters policy which provides coverage to personal effects, subject to policy rules and regulations. You have two options with this policy. Either you can choose to insure your belongings for replacement cost coverage or for actual cash value. In the former case, should any mishap befall your personal effects, you will receive the actual price of the property, and depreciation due to age and use is neglected. But there is a monetary ceiling as to how much you can claim for loss or damage of property. The latter policy will pay you the replacement value for damaged or lost property, but the depreciation will be calculated and reduced from the original cost of the property. By default the Actual cash value coverage is assigned and if the house owner feels that the replacement cost coverage suits his needs much better than the other, it has to be specifically mentioned. The most common error made my homeowners across the country is, the underestimate the real value of their own household articles that they have bought and accumulated over the years. This is a quite honest mistake and can be easily overlooked, given the sheer volume of purchase we make each year. Nevertheless, this a grave mistake and can be a cause of pain and financial loss should any unforeseen misfortune pay you a wary visit. So, just to be on the safer side, seek help from external sources when you ensure your personal belongings. Our local agents are ever eager to help you make the right decisions.

Liability claims

Far any man of conscience, it never is very pleasant when your actions, or rather your inactions cause distress, whether physical or otherwise, to someone else. And it is an especially displeasing feeling when this particular person’s discomfort takes a bite out of you financially. That is why we provide insurance cover to help you, should any such untoward occurrences chance to be the cause of your worry. Our agents are at hand to guide you and help you in choosing the right policy, in estimating the right insurance value or in reviewing your policy amount. This policy and coverage is a part of your home owners’ insurance policy and it will cover all claims that you may be forced settle due to litigations initiated against you, and it will also pay for the costs inherited as a result of the legal proceedings. Also, the amount from your medical insurance will cover the cost of attending to the injuries, if any, of the grieving party.

Every home owners’ and auto insurance has a financial limit to how much they can cover. Unfortunately, these will not be enough to protect you when you face a multi-million dollar suit, which seems to be the fashion these days. That is why we have the Personal Liability Umbrella, which will not only supplement all your current policies, but will also provide additional coverage, should you need it, in increments of one million dollars. The umbrella policy will come into effect only after the underlying liability limits of your other policies like auto coverage and homeowners’ insurance have been totally exhausted. That means, in order for you to have an umbrella policy, your existing policies will need to have some sort of limit or financial ceiling. In order to make an informed choice, you need to be aware of the insurance limits of various policies. The financial caps on the insurances vary from policy to policy and it also depends on the cost of the policy that you have purchased. The insurance liability limits for auto insurance for bodily injury is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per person and there is also a limit of five hundred thousand dollars per occurrence. For property damage, the liability limit for auto insurance is only fifty thousand dollars per occurrence. The home owners’ insurance liability limit is three hundred thousand dollars.

That is why we have introduced the liability insurance, so that you can tide over unexpected liability claims. So what does this liability insurance provide, you might ask. It adds to the inherent limits of your automobile insurance, home owners insurance and recreational vehicle insurance policies. Many kinds of unexpected expenditures and liabilities are excluded from the typical insurances, simply because they are unexpected. Therefore, the liability insurance provides coverage for exactly these unexpected expenses. Not only that, it also provides coverage for your legal defense expense, including but not limited to court costs, interest on judgment and premiums on legal bonds. For more information and help feel free to contact our local agents.

Now, there is the question of insuring valuables and jewelry. Chances are, you are the proud owner of many valuables that you have acquired, inherited, or bought over the years. Also the lady of the house is bound to have expensive jewelry in the house, so that she can have easy access to it. Should any disaster, natural or otherwise, damage your home and everything you hold dear, your homeowners insurance provides the standard coverage. But the coverage provided by this policy for valuables and jewelry is limited and it may not be able to insure your loss completely. So, if you have valuable personal items like jewelry, fur, fine arts etc. it would be advisable to purchase a personal article floater, which will provide insurance above the limit of your homeowners insurance. For more details and help in deciding whether you need to purchase this policy, enlist the services or our local agent.

This policy also provides coverage for extra costs you might incur. For example, if something happens to your home and renders it uninhabitable and inhospitable, you will need to stay at some other place. And if you are staying at a motel or hotel, you will need to pay extra for the food. This policy covers all these expenses, up to the applicable limits. Another important thing you need to be aware of is that you need a list of your belongings and personal effects, so that it will be easier when you are filing your claim. Fill out the handy home inventory checklist and store it in a safe, easily accessible place, so that you can gain access to it, in the event that you are in need of filing a claim.

Your home owners insurance covers against a lot of wide range of causes of damage and loss, namely, losses due to fire, lighting, tornadoes, wind storms, hail, explosions, smoke, vandalism, theft etc. it also provides coverage against accidental flooding and discharge of water due to faulty plumbing systems and fires from faults in electrical systems or heating systems. But the policy does not provide earthquake protection. You will need to take a separate policy to avail earthquake coverage. You will need to talk to our local agent to determine if you need to purchase this policy. In earthquake prone areas, the cost of this policy is quite high, but in other areas, it is rather inexpensive. For residents of California the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) coverage is available through our agents.

Then there is the matter of reviewing your policy coverage and determining whether you need to add to your insurance limit. It is always advisable to let the professionals do this sort of thing and it would be better if you ask our agents to help you in determining if you need to change your policy or coverage limits. You will need insurance additions when you make considerable changes to your house or personal belongings that are present in the house. For example, if you make additions to your house like adding rooms, garages etc, you will need to extend the coverage of your existing policy. If you start a business from your house, that is, if you are heading a business and using your house as an office, then you will need to enhance or alter your policy so that if anything happens to your house, your business or livelihood will not be endangered and all your loses can be tided over.

Also if you make purchases of great value, like valuable paintings, jewelry, antiques or a computer, you will need to raise your policy cap to provide a comprehensive coverage to these items. Should you make purchases involving residential property, whether for rental or as a second house, you will need to make changes in your policy. Either you will have to buy a new policy, or you will have to raise the premiums so that the financial liability ceiling of your existing homeowners insurance is raised higher to cover potential damages to all residential properties that you own.

Finally, we have some tips on how to save on your premium payments and how to avail certain discounts that are offered to responsible home owners. If you make improvements to your home so that it is well guarded against theft, accidents and other losses that can be avoided, the insurance rates can be lowered and you will be eligible for policy discounts, which means that you will have to pay lesser premiums. Also this has the added advantage that your home will be a safer place. Few simple things go a long way in ensuring a safer home. Using dead bolts and employing window locks can help secure your home to a certain extent. For enhanced security features, install a security system which has an outside signal and connection to the local police. Installing smoke detectors, sprinkler systems and fire alarms connected to the local fire department helps in early detection and containment of fires. Avoiding smoking in the house also reduces risk of fire. Keeping your doorways, driveways and walkways free of ice, snow and lichen help ward off unnecessary negligence litigations.

Better safe than sorry they say. But there is a limit to which we can avoid accidents and losses from occurring. No matter how careful you might be, you simply can’t stand in nature’s way and you can do nothing about her fury. But what you can do, is be prepared for damages and losses that might befall you, so that should they ever occur you will not be caught off guard. Insuring goes a long way in mitigating the effects of unexpected disasters, and especially when it comes to taking care of the financial aspect of post event recuperation operations. Here we have given you tips and advice on how to select policies, premiums etc. Sam Sandhu is always at hand to provide you with any kind of assistance that you might require. Feel free to approach him at any time.