Are you aware that there are loads of actions you can take which will prevent you from spending a much as you spend on insurance at the moment? You don’t even have to change your current insurers to achieve this.
Many property owners simply purchase protection policies for their homes along with their mortgage and never give their policy a second thought after that. This happens at the onset of them their home.
That is unwise, if you are knowledgeable about vehicle insurance, then you’d be aware of something most of these firms do. They tend to slowly increase prices knowing most consumers will stick around and not seek any rebates.
At the same time, insurers are very interested in reducing their risks, especially since recent years have brought an increase in catastrophic natural disasters.
Nowadays insurance companies are happy to offer lower ongoing premiums in exchange for less exposure to catastrophic risk.
1. Shop around at the time of purchase
Majority of those who insure their house in the United home insurance in the United States is purchased along with the closing of a home in a real estate transaction.
This does not mean; however, that the customer is locked into whatever insurance company the bank recommends.
Generally, they need for whatever insurance you are buying to meet the criteria of the mortgage lender, and that means that many insurance products and companies qualify. Take the time to search an insurance marketplace such as NerdWallet to ensure you get a good sense of what the market offers.
2. Call your insurance agent or insurance company
As in most cases, the best place to start is with whoever is currently fulfilling your insurance needs. Particularly now, in these times of coronavirus concerns and economic recessions, companies are willing to be flexible and give rebates or flexible payment terms in order to keep customers.
In many cases you won’t even have to plead your case, just say you are looking to reduce your premiums and you may find that the company already has a relief program in place.
3. Keep maintenance records
Just as with a car, you should keep meticulous records of any maintenance, preventive or corrective work carried out on the house. This will not only help with your insurance but it could also help with your home resale value should you decide to sell your property in the future.
These maintenance records are particularly important in the event that you need to make a claim – the last thing you want to happen is the insurance company denying a claim on your part claiming you were negligent in your upkeep of the house. Make sure you back up these records electronically.
4. Install a fire protection system
One of the biggest risks for property damage in a typical house is the risk of fire. Installing a fire protection system, or even just a fire alarm system will certainly alleviate some of the insurance company’s concern over the risk and they will likely reward the reduced risk with a lower premium for you.
5. Install a burglar alarm system
A fire protection sytem will reduce the risk of fire, and an alarm system, particularly one that is clear and obvious from the outside of the home, can significantly reduce your risk of break-in and can particularly reduce your risk of theft of content.
Ensure the system includes cameras and set up recordings so you can go back to the recordings should there ever be a need or a break-in.
6. Double check the insured Worth of your Property
The premium on your house is determined by the value of the property that you currently occupy. When people insure their homes sometimes, it might happen that the estimated value of your home might be different from the amount it was insured for. Now it’s your duty to make sure that the appraisal and insured value match, so that when you need to make claims, you’d be getting the worth of your house. The way to do this is to make sure that whenever your renew your agreement, make sure any appreciation in value your house has seen is duly noted by the insurers.
A of of times though resisting this value will raise the premium, as the overall trend is that property value elevates, but it is possible in a few instances that your payables may reduce using this technique.
Such instances can be when your house was insured for a larger value than it was worth in the first place, or when the value of your home goes down due to a market downturn or some other event.
It is very important that whenever you are adjusting the insured value of your home in your insurance policy, that you have a good understanding of what coinsurance is and how it can affect you should you need to make a claim.
Basically, coinsurance is a clause in home insurance policies that prevent you from being able to game the insurance company by claiming a value for your home that is much less than the actual market value of the home.
It is a clause that is triggered whenever there is a claim and the insurance company determines that the existing coverage on the policy was less than 80% of the replacement value of the home.
Your claim payout will be reduced proportionally by the gap between your actual coverage and the coverage that you needed to have.
7. Move
This may seem like unfitting advice, but the truth is that sometimes the location of a home will make it very difficult to insure, and whatever insurance you do get will be in all likelihood extremely expensive.
An example of this are homes on the oecan waterfront – these homes become more expensive and difficult to insure every year due to the continued storm activity the world is experiencing year over year.
If your insurance is getting to be unbearable or you can see a path to it becoming too much, it may be time to consider moving to a more insurable area.
In summary
It is expedient to evaluate all of the strategies above against your own insurance situation and realize that different insurance companies value different things; therefore, not all of these strategies will work with all companies.
Make sure that every year or so, you are obtaining competing quotes to make sure that what your insurance company is charging you is within the market range.