What to Think About Before a Homeowner Loss

Disasters are unforeseen and unpredictable. In Michigan, the most likely disasters to strike your home are tornados, floods, and wind. If your property is damaged or destroyed, you will likely have many questions and be faced with many decisions. Concerns about temporary shelter, emergency repairs, and the costs of restoring or rebuilding your home can be overwhelming.

Homeowners or renter’s insurance is your protection against a devastating loss. It is important to have some form of insurance coverage for your property and personal belongings. If you rent, your landlord may insure the building you live in, but the landlord’s insurance doesn’t cover your personal belongings.

Here are some things you can do before a disaster strikes to make claim handling a little easier:

•Inventory your personal property. Record model and serial numbers for more expensive items (i.e. televisions, DVRs, computers, etc.). Keep receipts for these items – they provide information such as: purchase price, purchase date, name of store, etc. You may even consider video recording or taking pictures inside your home. Note: Inventory records should be kept at a location other than your home.

•Make photocopies of your insurance policies and keep the copies in a secure location away from your residence. Keep important papers together so they will be readily available when you need them.

•Have your insurance producer and insurance company’s telephone numbers readily available.

•Be familiar with the coverage of your insurance policy. Make sure you understand the difference between actual cash value (ACV) and replacement cost coverage for your contents. ACV replaces contents at cost minus depreciation. Replacement cost replaces your contents at today’s prices.

•Remember: basic homeowners insurance policies do not cover flood, earthquake or mine subsidence damages. Coverage for these perils can be added to your homeowners insurance policy for additional premium.

Ronald Dwyer is an independent insurance agent licensed in Michigan for Home - Auto – Business Insurance. He can be reached at rondwyer@roninsureme.com or 248-390-6345. His website is http://www.roninsureme.com or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dwyerinsurance / Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ronalddwyer