Home Insurance Daily Guide

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There is a growing number of British residents buying second homes overseas. They are usually for vacation, retirement or investment purposes. The British owner would rather insure his/her second home with an insurance provider at home. Find below the usual coverage of an overseas home insurance. Home Contents and Buildings Insurance covers you if you should lose you home and its inventorized contents. Public Liability Insurance is crucial to an overseas house which is being rented out seasonally every year. Lost Earnings Insurance is very useful to those owners who plan to rent out their property. This insurance will pay you if your holiday makers cancel their reservation abruptly. Theft is covered for as long as all the necessary measures like making a detailed inventory of your worldly possesssions complete with pictures. This is important especially if you have no wish to rent out your holiday property.

If you want to understand the factors that determine your premiums, here are some of them:

1.Location – if you live in high-risk or high-crime areas, the risk that your home will be damaged or stolen from is significantly higher. This results in higher premiums. Also premiums in highly congested cities are generally higher compared to suburbs. Another factor that can affect your premium is your location’s propensity to be hit by natural disasters. If you’re house is lying on a fault line, or in locations that are prone to storms, this may cause your premium to increase.
2.Construction costs - some insurers will look at the construction costs in your area to see how much it would cost to rebuild your home if it were destroyed. The higher the construction costs are in your area, the higher the likelihood that you’ll pay for it in your home insurance rates.
3.Building materials – the materials you used to construct your home play a large part towards your home’s vulnerability. If you used brick or stone that is more durable and better able to withstand natural disasters such as fire, tornadoes or hurricanes, you’ll get a lower premium.

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In most home insurance, the part of legal responsibility coverage is to protect home owners from lawsuits that may arise from accidents that occur in their home or on their property. There is a very good probability that as a home owner, you do not have enough legal responsibility protection which could interpret to you losing all that you own to the person who decides to file a suit.
The problem is how to decide how much liability to buy. Because it is impulsive who is going to file a suit and for how much, there is no real exact figure to go for. The rule of thumb recurrently applied is to purchase liability coverage that is twice your net worth because any jury can suddenly award gigantic amounts that have no relation to what you own or your earning power.

When you invest in buying your house, the fun part is furnishing and decorating the house. This is exciting to many homeowners. But what is equally important that you should take into consideration is getting a home insurance policy to insure yourself against any risks.
There are two major components of a home insurance policy. The buildings insurance and home contents insurance. What the buildings insurance covers is the house itself, meaning the bricks and mortar of your home. Having this policy enables your property to be used as a mortgage or security for a loan. So that in case of fire or flood, your property value will not be greatly affected. On the other hand, the home contents insurance covers everything you own inside your house. Your personal belongings and furniture included. In this case, the coverage may either be ‘like for like’ which will provide you the same amount of the insured item before the damage, or ‘new for old’ which will provide you the amount to replace the damaged item with a new one.

Whether it is called Home Insurance, Homeowners Insurance or Hazard Insurance, it all means one and the same. They are security protection that covers private residences where the insurance provider issues a policy that would give financial protection not only to the home but also to other structures on the property including everything inside.

It is usually a combination of different types of Personal Insurance coverages. The amount of premiums to pay would depend on the type of coverage, the actual amount of the property to be covered and the risk classification of the property. The specifics of what to be covered would depend on what type of policy the owner takes out.

by: Christine Zafra

When getting a new insurance policy for your personal belongings, make sure that you do not undervalue your things. You have to declare the true value of the objects found inside your home like expensive jewelry, china wares and others, because if hypothetically, it gets destroyed in a fire or gets stolen, your insurance company can cover the real value of it. You also have to invest on door locks and other security system so as not to keep the burglars coming back. Your windows and doors should have the proper locks because if the insurance catches you with a not so secure entry pathway, you might have a hard time claiming your lost belongings (in case of burglary).

Photo taken from http://www.dasecurity.co.uk

by: Christine Zafra

How will you not get fooled by insurance companies? That is the big question everyone has on their minds right now. Everyone is in a state of economic set-back and not all are open to the idea of splurging money on insurance policies that are not needed. But what do policy holders have to do so as not to expend on damages in their homes not covered by their policies? They have to make sure that their houses are maintained well. Repair damaged walls or parts of the house instantly because this will come out cheaper in the long run. Some insurance companies only cover those that are damaged by fire, storm etc. Also, for those who do not have insurances, you have to remember that if your house is situated in a flooded area, you will definitely have a hard time getting one.

Photo taken from http://www.galvininsurance.com

by: Christine Zafra

Not quite. Thames Water, a local utility firm in UK has been offering people “free” insurance for the first three months of their subscription. Of course, you can be assured that the first three months are free, however, after the third month, what happens next? Well, a lot of complaints have been received that the company billed them for 2.82 pounds per month after the third month of subscription. There is nothing wrong with it, in fact, that was what written in the terms and conditions (that the first three months is free), however, a lot of people just wanted to have the free part and they don’t want to pay for the extra month. Thames Water automatically bills the person after the third month (considering that most subscribers will forget after the 3rd month that they have an active subscription), not unless they will cancel it.

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by: Christine Zafra

Rats surely are a big problem to home insurance. These rodents do gnaw on the wood finishing of the house, sometimes, making a certain part of the house hollow and unstable. They can even chew on cloth, wiring systems and of course, bring germs to all parts of your house. However, these are only small problems caused by rats. Some of them do bigger damages to houses. An 80 year old woman died when her house exploded due to gas leakage. Upon further investigation, it was found out that rodents gnawed on her gas piping that caused the explosion. It is sad to say that most insurance companies do not cover property damage (like deteriorating wall) due to rat infestation, however, fires caused by it might be covered—you just to find it out with your insurance company.

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by: Christine Zafra

New Year comes (or any celebration for that matter) and so do fireworks. In fact, most households do not feel that New Year is in fact complete without lighting even a couple of fireworks. However, do you think people need to worry about getting insurance for their homes in case stray fireworks land on their porches? The truth is, some insurance policies cover bonfires and fireworks on their list. Some of them even cover third party liabilities in case someone got hurt when you lighted that firework. However, you have to read between the lines. Mentioning the word “some” means a lot. It means that not all insurance companies do cover such. You have to check with then if they do, but in case they don’t, and you don’t want to spend more on your insurance, all you can do is to stay safe.

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