Personal Property

What are "insurance policy endorsements"?
What are some examples of insurance policy endorsements?
There are many examples of insurance policy endorsements. One would be if you had a mink fur coat coat for instance. If your house were to burn down and you were to lose your personal property, the insurer would assume you may need a winter coat or perhaps a summer jacket. They're not going to assume you need a mink fur coat, so you need to be very upfront with your insurance company about that kind of item and any kind of specialized article of clothing, a piece of jewelry that is out of the ordinary, some collectibles, such as stamps, baseball cards, or a piece of fine art, you want to identify those, you want to have them independently appraised and you want to have them included as endorsements in your homeowner's policy so if the worst happens or if any of those items are damaged or lost, at least there won't be any dispute that they were covered, what their value is, and at least you'll get some monetary compensation for them, although some of these items might not ever be able to be replaced.

What does "scheduled personal property" mean?
Scheduled personal property is property that is out of the ordinary. When you lose property under homeowner's policy, it is assumed that you are going to have a bed, a couch, a television, a kitchen table, etc. If you have a piece of property that is out of the ordinary - a valuable painting, a wine collection, a baseball card collection, a mink coat, a irreplaceable piece of jewelry -these are things that need to be identified before hand when you talk to your insurance agent and buy coverage. Most likely they are going to ask you to get an independent appraisal, so that the value can be objectively set. That possession will be listed within the insurance policy as a scheduled endorsement. If there should be a loss, there won't be any question that these items are in fact covered under the insurance policy, and at least the policy holder can get some monetary compensation for the loss.

Will my homeowner's insurance cover losses due to theft?
Homeowner's insurance generally will cover you if there's any sort of a burglary in your home and pieces are lost. There might be an insurance deductible involved. However, you do need to keep in mind that if you have any super-valuable items that are out of the ordinary -- baseball card collections, a very valuable piece of art, a fur coat, for example -- you want to make sure your insurance agent and your insurer know that up front, so that those things are identified, independently appraised and added as endorsements to the insurance policy. If those items are stolen, you can be compensated as well.

Will my homeowner's insurance cover injuries sustained by guests in my house?
Actually, under the liability portion of a homeowner's policy, those types of losses are covered. They are, however, only covered to a point. There's usually a limit of liability on homeowners' policies, and they can be surprisingly low. They'll handle routine slips and falls and things of that nature. But if you do own your own home, I would suggest that you seriously consider adding on 'umbrella liability', which is a policy that covers you for losses above and beyond what the homeowner's policy will. In case someone is injured, slipping on ice in your driveway, falling down your stairs, tripping over your dog in the yard or breaking a leg you want to make sure that if you are sued either for personal injury or some sort of property loss, that you have sufficient coverage so that you don't have to pay it out of your own assets.

Will my homeowner's insurance cover a dog bite?
Your homeowner's insurance should cover a dog bite. However, I would strongly recommend that when you buy homeowner's insurance, you do mention to the insurance agent that you have a dog just to make sure that there are no misunderstandings and that the policy for some reason doesn't exclude domestic pets. You want to make sure that your insurance agent has checked with the carrier, that they are aware you do have a pet and that those types of losses are covered. Dogs bites should be covered.

Will my homeowner's insurance cover my property when I travel?
Homeowner's insurance will cover your property when you travel, to a limited extent, and it really does depend on the policy. When you do travel, some items, if you lose them or they're stolen, might be covered under your homeowner's policy. That's a very important question to ask of your insurance agent or your broker. They can check with the insurer and look at the homeowner's insurance policy and see if you are covered. If there's any concern about this all, you might want to consider adding on a travel insurance policy, which will cover you in case you can't make the trip, and if you do lose property en route, will reimburse you up to the policy limits.

Why do I hear so much about insurance and mold?
Mold has been featured a lot in the news of late. There were major reports on houses that had been severley affected by mold on major networks and newspapers across the country. It has been a very hot topic. But it is a maintenance issue that is generally not covered under standard homeowner's insurance. Mold is the type of thing people need to be vigilant about. If there has been any water damage in their home, make sure there is not any subsequent mold developing, keep an eye out for those types of things. Homeowner's policies are really meant to cover more sudden, catastrophic loses such as a hurricane, a fire, things of that nature. It is not designed to cover gradual, creeping losses like mold, dry rot, vermin or rodent infestation, etcetera. These are all things that you should go over with your insurance company. These types of cover might be available if you negotiate and ask about them. It might require an extra premium, but it never hurts to ask.

What's the difference between "replacement cost" and "actual cash value"?
Replacement cost and actual cash value are two very different things. If you have a home owners policy, and your home burns to the ground, you want it rebuilt. If you have an actual cash value policy, essentially, you are only insured for the value of the home minus any depreciation over the years. So if you have sort of a ramshackle home, on a piece of property that is really only worth 35,000 dollars, that is what the insurance company is going to pay you. Unfortunately, to rebuild your home may cost 100,000, 200,000 dollars. In other words, it may cost a lot more to replace your home than the home is actually valued at, if you had to rebuild it from scratch. So we always recommend that people should get replacement cost value because in that sense the insurer, up to the limit of the policy, is guaranteeing that they are going to pay what it takes to replace your home, as opposed to just reimburse you for its value.

Why won't my insurance company renew my policy?
There are a variety of factors that goes into an insurance company's decision not to renew, and people should understand it's not necessarily that they did anything wrong. There are situations where people have repeated losses, whether there's been a number of fires on their property, whether there's been a number of people who have been injured. So if you have a bad loss history and a lot of claims, there's a chance the insurer may say, well, I can't charge enough to make a profit on this policy, and I'm going to walk away. However there are situations, for instance, what's going on now on Long Island, in New York, where certain insurers are overexposed. They have too much market share on the island and there's a lot of talk these days about hurricanes becoming more frequent and more severe, and about how Long Island is due for another monster hurricane at some point. So the insurers, in that case, are concerned that if a major catastrophe hits, I've insured too many homes in that exposed area, so I'm going to cut back by not renewing a certain percentage of the homes. So in that case they may not renew you. It has nothing to do with you doing anything wrong or being a bad risk. It's just that I insure forty percent of this market, and I've got to reduce this to thirty percent. That means I've got to not renew two hundred homes.

What does "loss of use" coverage mean?
Loss of use coverage is very important, and it is something that is frequently overlooked when people seek out insurance. It's something they don't even know they have. For example, if your home cannot be occupied because you've had a fire, or because the roof was blown off in a hurricane, where are you going to live in the interim? You might move in with family if you are lucky, but odds are you might have to go into a hotel for a while. You might even have to rent a house if there was significant enough damage so that the replacement of the home is going to take months and not days. If you have loss of use coverage, the insurer will pay for your additional living expenses. They will pay to put you up in another property, either in a rental or a hotel of some sort. If you have lost personal property, for instance your clothes, and all you have left after a fire are the clothes on your back, the insurer could issue you a check to go out and try to refurbish your wardrobe. If you depend on your computer to live your life, and you have lost your computer in the fire, they will pay to replace it. Most essentially, "loss of use" means loss of use of the home. If I have to go somewhere else, and it's going to cost me extra money, the insurance is not only going to pay to re-build or repair your home, but it's also going to pay so that you have some place to live while the repairs or the re-building is going on.