Excluded Perils - Baton Rouge Home Insurance

Events covered by your homeowner’s insurance plan are referred to as perils within your policy; but not every peril that causes damage to your property is covered. Those that are not covered are called excluded perils and they may include:

• Earth movement: This can include earthquakes, landslides, earth shifts, mudslides and sinkholes. Policies can, however, have special endorsements that provide limited coverage for some of these perils and special policies can be purchased for others. If you live in an area that is prone to any of these events, you may want to work with an agent to ensure that you are properly covered.
• Neglect: It’s up to every homeowner to take the necessary steps to protect their home and to maintain the property to minimize the chance of losses. If your property becomes damaged as a result of neglect, your home insurance policy likely offers no benefits.
• Acts of war: If your home is damaged during activities connected to a civil war, undeclared war, war-like act by the military or military personnel, or rebellion, your home insurance policy likely excludes coverage. It may also exclude coverage for certain nuclear events.
• Intentional loss: The purpose of a home insurance policy is to make a homeowner whole after a loss that they were not expecting and, when possible, took relative care to prevent or minimize damage from. If a homeowner should be found to cause intentional damage to his or her home, the claim would likely be denied.
• Water damage: Your home insurance policy offers no protection against flood damage. Instead, a separate flood insurance policy is required to protect against the damage imposed by rising bodies of water due to runoff, storm surge, etc. It also does not provide coverage for tidal waves, sewer and drain backup, or leaks in the foundation.
• Government action: If, by government action, your property is confiscated or seized, it isn’t likely to be covered by your policy. However, if a neighborhood fire puts your home at risk and you are ordered out as a safety measure, then fire damage may be covered.
• Ordinance or law: After a loss, if local ordinances or laws require upgrades in rebuilding, then these additional expenses may not be covered.

To discuss your home insurance policy’s exclusions or to get a free Baton Rouge home insurance quote, give us a call at 225-935-8751.

How to Make Your Own Personal Property Inventory

If your home and personal property is destroyed by a flood, fire, hurricane or other disaster, it may be more difficult than you think to remember all the items you had in your home before the event. And without an itemized list of the items you lost, you cannot get the recovery you deserve from the insurance company.

One way to avoid this is to make a personal property inventory. You can hire someone to do this for you, but it isn’t difficult to do it yourself.

1. Go room by room: Don’t just try to think about each of the items in your rooms while you are sitting in one place. Instead, go into one room and focus on that space completely while you are in it. Do not start another room until you finish the one that you are in.
2. List every item: As you look around the room, write a comprehensive list of every item in the room as you look at it. This is really the only way to ensure that you make note of every item you own.
3. Add descriptions and serial numbers: Once you’ve gone through every room of your home and classified each of your possessions, go back to the room you began the process in and start noting any distinguishing facts, serial numbers and descriptions next to each of the items you have listed. You should do this after you create the basic list of items because the process can take a while. If you try to do this all at once then you may actually suffer an insurable incident before you even have your basic list complete...

Continue reading "How to Make Your Own Personal Property Inventory" or contact us at (225) 490-5678 to learn more about Baton Rouge home insurance.

Baton Rouge Home Insurance for the First-time Homebuyer

Insurance policies can be difficult for any consumer to fully understand, but first-time homebuyers are in a stickier situation than most after all, here you have a plan of insurance designed to protect your largest asset, and it is not only difficult to understand but also has many caveats that, by not understanding them, could leave you dangerously exposed.

Home Insurance Is Not Flood Insurance

The first lesson for a first-time homebuyer is that Baton Rouge home insurance is not the same thing as flood insurance. Flood insurance protects your home against the damage caused by a body of water that rises as a result of snow melt, rain, etc. Home insurance offers no protection to homeowners when this happens. If you live in a flood zone, then your mortgage lender will require you to have flood insurance. If you do not live in a flood zone, the coverage is optional.

Limits and Deductibles

Your policy likely has a deductible—and it may even have more than one. The deductible is the amount of money you must pay out of pocket for an insurable incident. Your insurance policy will offer no benefit payments unless the claim exceeds your deductible.

Limits are the maximum benefits that your insurance company will pay out. Your limits should be reasonable for the value of your home and contents and possible liability claims exposure. If your limits are lower than you’d like, you can consider an umbrella policy to add additional coverage.

Personal Property or Contents

In addition to offering financial reimbursement for losses and damages to your home, home insurance also protects the value of your contents or personal property. This includes your furniture, electronics, intangible software and music purchases, clothes and more. For jewelry, art or antiques, you may need additional coverage.

Liability Coverage

If someone is injured in your home or on your property, you may be responsible for paying damages, medical expenses and lost income, even if the injury was not a result of your purposeful negligence. Home insurance protects you from these liabilities so that you can actually enjoy having people over without worrying that it will later result in a huge liability.

Bed Bugs and Mold

It is a good idea to read your home insurance policy and see what types of incidents are considered insurable and actually offer recompense. In most policies, bed bugs, termites, mold and other home invaders are not considered insurable incidents, so you must pay out of pocket for their removal.

As an Independent Agency we have access to many companies and products. Through this vast market we are able to offer you the professional protection you need and deserve. Call us today to get a free Baton Rouge home insurance quote at (225) 490-5678.