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Most home and contents insurance claims proceed smoothly, except perhaps for occasional disagreements about how much something was worth. But another re-occurring difficulty is where damage is due to poor building maintenance. The homeowner has a duty of care and the insurers take a dim view of claims that the homeowner could, and should have, avoided. AS a result insurers may scale down or even reject your claim.

To avoid such problems you should give your house an annual Maintenance MOT. A springtime check would be good. By carrying out just a few simple checks, it should be possible to find problems at an early stage.

Rain, wind, snow and frost place some of the biggest day-to-day strains on the structure of your home. Consequently, most homes develop a few problems in the autumn and winter months, so a springtime check can save much time and expense further down the line.

It’s not as if you’ll be paying money that you could claim later on an insurance claim. Indeed, any costs you claim that were really a maintenance issue, will be rejected by your insurance company.

Here’s our 10 point springtime MOT for your home:

? Clean out the gutters. Autumn can be especially hard on gutters as lots of debris can accumulate. That must be removed. Blocked gutters and down spouts can quickly cause enormous damage if water is left to overflow and penetrate the structure. But please be careful with this job. Working up ladders is dangerous so why not get your window cleaner to do the job!

? Now get your binoculars out and check the roof. Search for cracked, loose or slipped tiles. A leaking roof can result in costly damage. Ceiling damage, rot, redecoration can quickly swallow up money. Then there’s the a safety issue. If a tile slips off, someone could be badly injured. Even your car could take a direct hit!

? Check out your exterior paintwork. Any cracked, peeling, or blistered paintwork needs attention. Touch it up to preserve the wood from damage. Summer time can be surprisingly hard on paintwork. High temperatures and big temperature changes create expansion and contraction cracks ready to let in the following winter to do its worst.

? If you’ve heavily used an open fire during the winter, get the chimney swept. Heavy build-ups of soot can easily catch fire and during the summer the soot absorbs damp.

? Take a walk around the house and make sure that nothing is covering over the damp course. Pilled up garden rubbish is the most common offender. Grass cuttings are not your home’s best friend! If damp gets past the damp course your walls inside will get damp resulting in damaged to plasterwork decoration. Over time, rot will set in.

? When you are planting shrubs and trees you need to ensure that their roots are not going to cause future damage. If roots penetrate your drains or get into your foundations you’re in for horrendous bills. Willow and Popular trees are some of the worst offenders. Are you aware that you Read more…

You?ve probably got contents insurance for your belongings but are you aware just how easy it is to fall behind in calculating the value of them?

What do you imagine the average contents of a family home are worth – ?25,000 or ?30,000? In fact this figure, for a typical home, is estimated to be over ?45,000. Apart from your ?moveable items? of carpets, furniture, curtains, it?s probable that electrical goods purchased over the last few years explain the sudden rise. It?s not unusual to have three or four mobile phones, a couple of computers, possibly also a laptop. Then there are the TV?s. Apart form the large family wide screen digital HD ready, singing and dancing set, there?s probably a another one in the kitchen and two or three others in the bedrooms, not to mention DVD and video recorders. Probably the children have iPods, gameboys and whatever else is ?in? at present. Don?t forget your CD collection ? Norwich Union values these at ?10 each and DVD?s.

Apart from the risk of damage, all the above items are very appealing to the thief, being easy to handle and finding a ready market. Don?t forget the garden, the mowers and garden machinery, contents of the shed and garage, garden furniture and even your tubs and hanging baskets. The value of plants can add up too!

Should you need to make a claim, it?s important that you?re not under insured. If the insurance company judges that you don?t have adequate insurance, the claim will not be fully paid. This means that if you have insured your contents for, say, ?20,000 and your insurance company considers there would be a value of ?30,000 to replace them, then there would be a shortfall of ?10,000.

Insurers handle things in different ways. For example Norwich Union Direct, one of the major insurers, will pay out up to the amount for which you?re covered. It?s left up to you to fund the difference. More Than tells us Read more…

Officially The 2006 Atlantic Tropical Hurricane Season starts on June first. But last year the 2005 Atlantic Tropical Hurricane Season started two-weeks early and so if we get a repeat you can expect the first actual Hurricane Category storm on or about May 15 or so.

But many of the Snowbirds who come to Florida every year are leaving now or have already left back home to be sure to get out of dodge before the first storm slams the Florida Coastline. But the snowbirds are not the only ones leaving Florida, as many Insurance companies are pulling out or have already cancelled their polices and left the Sunny State, stating it is not worth the risk. They know like all of us that Florida will get hit hard during this year?s Hurricane Season.

So far this year 51 Read more…

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors warns that if you can’t get insurance for your house, you’re in big trouble. Mortgage lenders won’t lend on houses that are uninsurable and as a result its value could fall by up to 80%.

It’s a high flood risk that’s most likely to make your house uninsurable. According to a recent survey, 6.5 million homes are already at risk from flooding of which 1.5 million are in high risk areas. The government has completed flood defences in many such areas and protection for a further 80,000 homes is due this year. But concerns have also been expressed about a further 120,000 new homes planned for the Thames Gateway which are potentially in a high ?at risk? zone. Yet many areas remain vulnerable. And if global warming continues, by 2030, the 1.5 million at risk could mushroom 3.5 million. Back in 2003 the Association of British Insurers (ABI) agreed the principles which committed UK insurers to offering home and contents insurance for properties in areas which are assessed to be at a flooding risk once in seventy five years or more. The rider was that the flood defences had to be already in place or would be completed by the end of 2007.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has the responsibility of developing and maintaining these flood defences but within the insurance industry there’s widespread concern that insufficient progress is being made. As a result the insurers have has warned the government that there could be widespread withdrawal of insurance cover if progress is stepped up.

In the mean time, those in areas threatened by flood water could find their insurance premiums soaring. Whilst the insurance industry agreed to provide insurance cover, their commitment was simply to maintain premiums at ?reasonable? levels. But there was no definition of what ?reasonable? means. As a result premium increases of 60% have been common with up 400% increases in bad areas. In a tiny number of cases, cover has been withdrawn altogether, mostly in country areas where DEFRA considers the cost of defending a cluster of a few homes to be uneconomic.

Environmentalists warn that unless DEFRA gets it’s skates on, the UK ‘s current bill for flood Read more…

Now that you are out on your own and have your own place of residence, there are still a few more things that you must do. One of these is finding good home owners insurance. Hopefully you know why it is required when owning/renting a home, so we wont go into that. There are a few tips that you can use in finding the best home owners insurance that is right for you.

Before you even set foot into an office to begin discussing home owners insurance, be sure to do some research to find the cheapest that is offered in your area. With a few phone calls to different locations, one can easily find a cheaper alternative. Sometimes companies will even compete for your business if they know that you are being offered a much better deal than what they are currently providing. It is to the best of your advantage to call around first before you begin handing out money.

The most important thing to remember is that the person that you are dealing with is a salesman and they aren’t always honest with you. To prevent a lot of headaches try to make sure that you are going to someone that knows what they are doing, or ask friends where they received their insurance from. When offered Read more…

When shopping around for homeowners insurance for your mobile home, make sure you know what you’re buying. Know what risks you are exposed to and how to cover them. Below are a few basic things to consider:

Named peril or all risk (comprehensive): Homeowners policies may be purchased on a named peril basis. What that means is the policy will cover losses that occur as a result of the perils named on the policy. Some named perils are fire, lightening and ice/snow storm (check your policy). Named peril policies are cheaper than all risk, but they are also more restrictive.

All risk polices are comprehensive. Under an all risk policy, the insurance company will pay for all losses except for those that are excluded (discuss the exclusions with your agent). It costs more, but is worth the money.

Trip Collision coverage: Unlike stationary homes, mobile homes have the ability to be moved from one location to another. If there is a possibility that you will be moving your home, be sure to discuss this coverage with your agent. It’s better to have it and not use it than to need it and not have it.

Valuation: There are two types of valuation, replacement cost and actual cash value (ACV). Make sure Read more…

Did you know that you or your home may be responsible for you paying higher rates on homeowners insurance. Sometimes being labeled as high risk can be avoided, but other times it cannot. Below are some of the most common reasons why you may be labeled as high risk.

#1. Specific Dog Breeds

Did you know that just by owning a certain dog, you can be labeled as high risk and may not be able to acquire homeowners insurance if it poses too high a risk? If you do not own a dog but are thinking about purchasing one in the future, it is in the best of your interest to talk to your insurance company to make sure that this breed is not labeled as high risk.

#2. Owning An Older Home

If you own a much older home, then you may be labeled as high risk. There are a number of reasons why this is true, it may be because of the electrical wiring in your home may not be up to today’s standards, and they see it as a fire hazard. To avoid this, be sure that your home is always up to standards when it comes to electrical wiring and safety.

#3. House Location

Your house may even be located in a high risk area. There is really nothing that you can do about this. This might be because the area Read more…

While most people believe that homeowners insurance is all that they need. Most people will tell you that when trouble arises in the home, whether it is because of natural disaster, and possibly anything else that causes you to loose items in your house. Sometimes, the insurance will not reimburse you because it simply isn’t in the coverage policy. That is why it may be in your best interest to look into home content insurance, and find who can offer you the best deal for your current situation.

The purpose of content insurance is to give you house and all of items in it, that extra security that if something happens in which you have no control over, you wont be left out in the cold to deal with the costs all on your own. Just like regular homeowners insurance, it is important to shop around before settling on one company. Many of these companies will offer free quotes if you ask. These quotes are just like gold. They hold all the information that you will need to compare their rates to competitor’s rates so that you can find the best deal. There are even a number of websites out there that will gather all of the best rates that are available to you. It just takes a little time, but as said before, Read more…

When shopping around for homeowner insurance, there is one thing to keep in mind. In order to get the best insurance for your money, you must shop around. You do this every day in the grocery store trying to find better prices on products, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t do the same when it comes to homeowners insurance. It can be a little difficult in finding the right type of insurance that is best for you, but keep these few things in mind and you should be well on your way to saving big bucks.

Before you settle down and buy homeowners insurance from one company it is important to acquire and compare rate quotes from several businesses. Most companies will even give you a free rate quote if they know you are interested in purchasing insurance with them, regardless of if you actually choose them for your services. These quotes are very valuable information because sometimes, insurance companies can sense that you are not interested they may start competing for your business.

While you are talking to a representative about the quote, ask them if there are any discounts that you might be eligible for. For instance, if you have an in home fire sprinkler system, there are discounts available to you. Newer homes Read more…

With the ever increasing popularity of mobile homes, it is no surprise that there would be special insurance agencies that deal with just mobile homes. Just like finding the right insurance for a house, you may have a little difficulty finding the best insurance rates for your mobile home. Did you know that you could receive a free quote from mobile home insurers?

Just like any business, the insurance companies are interested in trying to win you over, and will compete to gain you as a customer. This is why more and more mobile home insurance companies make it easy and free for you to obtain a free quote. Most of the time, they make it so easy that you can get your quote without lever leaving the house. That’s right, with a simple phone call all of the information that you will need to compare with other insurers will be at your fingertips.

Even though most insurance companies offer the same basic coverage that the next company offers, but what is not the same is the price. You would think that because the insurance policy is the same that you would be paying roughly the same price from insurer to insurer. This is simply not the case, the prices can easily vary by hundreds of dollars. This is why its important to Read more…