Are There Gaps in Your Homeowners Insurance Coverage?

If, like many of our clients, you're wondering whether there are any gaps in your Greensboro homeowners insurance coverage, we've put together the following information to help answer your questions. It's not a bad idea to take some time every two years or so to get together with your insurance agent to review your homeowners coverage, since your home's value and your personal property situation may have changed during that time. Here, we'll discuss some common homeowners insurance gaps you'll want to try to avoid.

Most Common and Costly Claims

According to statistics found on the Insurance Information Institute (III) website, 6% of insured homes had a claim filed in 2017. Property damage, including theft, accounted for 98.1% of those loss claims.

In a study done by The Travelers Insurance Company, it was determined that the five most common causes of home insurance claims are:

• Wind damage – 25% of all claims
• Non-weather related water damage – 19% of all claims
• Hail – 15% of all claims
• Weather-related water damage (rain, snow, ice dams, etc. Doesn't include floods) – 11% of all claims
• Theft – 6% of all claims

While the five above listed claim causes account for the greatest number of claims, fires are responsible for the most expensive claims, accounting for approximately one-fourth of homeowners insurance claims costs. Typical causes for residential fire losses include misuse or failure of machinery or equipment, electrical issues such as faulty wiring or outlets and kitchen fires associated with cooking.

Filling the Gaps

With theft being one of the main causes for which policyholders file claims against their Greensboro homeowners insurance policies (fifth most common cause), you should pay attention to any cap limits on your coverage. Most policies have fairly low limits on valuables such as artwork, expensive electronics, jewelry, furs, antiques and collectibles. If you own expensive items like these you should look into getting higher coverages through a rider or endorsement to your policy.

If the coverage on your home isn't enough to allow you to rebuild it if it's totally destroyed (as in a house fire), you should revisit your policy limits. Building costs may have increased significantly since you took out your homeowners policy and the amount needed to rebuild may be much higher than it was when you bought the home. Make sure your policy limits are high enough to pay for a complete rebuild.