Residential Insurance

Residential Insurance: Homeowners and Renters 16 Also, make sure to take into account commonplace household items when calculating your contents limit. Often, people concern themselves only with big ticket items purchased for use in their homes and neglect to account for all the many things you need to run your household and enjoy your home such as small appliances, kitchen utensils, linens, window coverings, and sundries. Remember, personal property also includes clothing, shoes, accessories, and personal items. Two major problems experienced by homeowners with their residential property/homeowners insurance policies in the aftermath of past California wildfires were: (A) Many of the dwellings were underinsured, i.e., insured for amounts inadequate for rebuilding. Insurers sometimes refer to this as inadequate insurance-to-value. (B) The problem of increased cost of construction was evident in many situations. When rebuilding, homeowners have to comply with new building code requirements. In some instances the difference between the dwelling limit and the code upgrades was a significant amount. Also, the extreme heat of some fires (and some new building code requirements) necessitated the building of new foundations and the removal of the debris from the damaged foundation. This is a situation that can be easily overlooked when determining building limits. An important part of owning any property is protecting the property to the best of your ability. Homeowners insurance is a vital component to the protection of your property. By knowing and understanding the coverage and limits of your policy, and by making sure that values are current, you greatly add to you and your family’s peace of mind in any loss situation.