The Right Time to Call Your Homeowners Insurance Company

Homeowners insurance helps you rebuild or repairs the damages that occurred to your home. For instance, inclement weather, fire, and water damage are covered by your homeowners’ insurance policy. Your insurance company will reimburse you for the damage so you can return to living in your home.

Other ways homeowners’ insurance benefits your home is that it protects your assets and helps you replace either stolen or damaged items. Without homeowners insurance, you will have to pay for damages out of your own pocket.

Your insurance coverage also pays for the medical costs of a person in the event they sustain an injury on your property, covers the cost of property repairs, and more. Even though homeowners insurance protects you in most cases, there are various things that can cancel your coverage in your insurance policy.

6 Cases Where You Should Consider Contacting Your Home Insurance Company

 

If you buy homeowners insurance and make a significant change to your property that exposes your home to risks, you need to inform your insurance company. Failure to inform your insurance company can result in them canceling certain types of coverage under your insurance policy.

To prevent your insurance company from taking this action, you need to contact them for the following reasons:

 

1. You Will Not Be Present in Your Home for More than 4+ Days

 

If you will be out of your home for more than four days, you need to contact your insurance company. While each insurance company differs, there’s a limit to how long your home can be unoccupied and still benefit from the protections of home insurance. 

The best way to prevent this from happening is to have a trusted friend, or neighbor, house sit. While you are away from your home, you can a friend to check your residence each day to make sure nothing is wrong, turn off the water supply and drain your pipes before you leave, and install a water flow system to alert the proper company in the event of water damage.

For more information about protecting your home when you’re away our: 7 Tips to Protect Your Home While You’re Away

 

2. You Plan to Make Extensive Renovations to Your Home or Add to It

 

If you plan to perform renovations on your home or add to it, you need to talk to your insurance company. If you carry on with the renovations without informing them of it, they may cancel your coverage. In addition to this, you should also acquire special insurance to protect you from vandalism, glass breakage, and water damage that can occur during renovations.

 

See how renovations can change the price of your home insurance policy.

 

3. You Plan to Start a Home-Based Business

 

If you plan to start a home-based business, you need to inform your insurance company. You would require coverage in the event water damage destroys important business equipment, products, business records, and more. Though, some standard homeowners insurance policy may provide limited coverage for business property that is stored in your home. But, by keeping your insurance company in the dark about your home-based business, you risk having none of your business-related losses covered by your insurance coverage.

 

For more information about home insurance as it pertaining to your home business check out our: The Ultimate Guide to Insuring Your Home-Based Business

 

4. You Plan to Host a Party at Your Home

 

If you plan to host a party or event at your homes such as a wedding, birthday party, or family reunion, tell your insurance company about it. For instance, someone at your party can fall into the swimming pool and get hurt. When you try to make a claim with your insurance company about it, they will already be aware of you throwing a party at your home. If your insurance company cannot cover the event, you may need to obtain special coverage to cover it.

In this case, you may want to opt-in to Special Event Insurance. Which can cover:

• Cancellation coverage — If inclement weather or a natural disaster arises and causes you to cancel or postpone the event, a special event insurance policy may provide financial protection.
• No show coverage — If a vendor/restaurant fails to deliver the flowers, cake or food for your event, the insurance coverage may help you recoup some of the costs.
• Counseling — If cancellation of the event causes you emotional stress that requires professional counseling (and you provide a doctor’s note), special event insurance coverage may cover the costs of such counseling.

 

5. Your Home Sustains Damage

 

This is quite obvious, but it’s important to note. You need to contact your insurance company as soon as your home sustains damage. If a tree falls on your house and causes a pipe to burst or leads to a fire, you need to get in touch with your insurance company to alert of this incident immediately.

 

6. You Are Installing a Swimming Pool in Your Home

 

If you’re installing a swimming pool or even getting a trampoline for your house, you need to inform your insurance company. Your insurance company will reimburse you in the event an injury is caused by your swimming pool or trampoline. Both additions to your home put people at risk of sustaining an injury while at your home.

 

What Incidents Your Homeowners Insurance May Not Cover

 

Homeowners insurance may not cover certain natural disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides, landslides, and flood damage caused by storms. You need to get in touch with your insurance company if the area you live in is at risk of these disasters.

When you are filing a claim, you need to contact your insurance company immediately to report the incident, provide them with your policy number, and do not remove any damaged property or debris, as they may be relevant to you making a successful claim.

Once you have filed the claim with your insurance company, you need to prepare a detailed list of all the items that got destroyed and damaged and take pictures and videos of your home and belongings to show them to your insurance company.

We also recommend that you keep copies of any documents exchanged between you and your insurance company. If you had no choice, but move out of your home, until the home repairs finished, you need to provide your insurance company with records and receipts so they can reimburse you accordingly.

Make sure you keep all the evidence you need in a safe place and make copies of the evidence as well. It is important that you take all these steps if you want to make a successful claim. Always make sure to contact your insurance company as soon as an incident occurs at your property or beforehand, if the risk of an incident occurring at your home is high.

We hope you found this article hopeful. If you’d like to see more articles like this, please Like Us on Facebook!