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By admin On January 9, 2012No Comments
Nowadays putting in a claim on your homeowners insurance can be fairly straight forward and easy. All it usually involves is getting ahold of your agent and completing a form and then waiting for the adjuster to come out and make their inspection.
It varies by state for the amount of time it takes the insurance adjuster to respond to your claim. There are prompt pay laws that are there to protect you if you feel your adjuster isn’t returning your calls or responding to your claim in a timely manner.
The claims process can be tricky, especially if you make a lot of claims. A lot of insurance companies will just cancel your policy if you make more than 2 or 3 claims a year. They are almost always risk based, and always scared off if they have to pay more than collect. Granted, you pay to have a homeowner’s policy to cover that type of loss and if it happens then it is the insurance company’s responsibility to repay you.
Follow these tips to maximize your potential reimbursement
• Put your claim in ASAP, call the hotline or fill out the online form as soon as you know there is a problem.
• Understand exactly what your policy covers, and what isn’t covered as well as what your deductibles are.
• Try not to say “lawyer”, if you decide to hire an attorney, the adjuster, insurance company and your agent will only be able to communicate with the lawyer.
• Get at least 2 or 3 repair estimates from local reputable companies.
It’s Ok to make temporary repairs to the damage on your house; you need to protect your home and keep your family warm and to protect them from further damage or injury. The insurance company should always cover these repairs. However, you should wait to make permanent repairs until you hear from your adjuster.
Always keep receipts and copies of the bills when you have your temporary repairs done so you can present them to the adjuster. I really can’t stress how important it is to document everything even down to the smallest detail. There are certain documents and receipts at the time you wouldn’t consider valuable but can really save you a lot of money in the long run.
If you have photos of your house pre and post claim those are great tools in your arsenal. They will help you to prove your household inventory and also establish a portfolio of your house hold belongings. You can download a home inventory form for free just by searching for it on the internet.
Get either a fire proof safe or a safety deposit box to keep documents that show what type of home as well as the records for any and all remodeling jobs and construction plans you may have. This will also save you a lot of money on the long run.
When you’re dealing with the adjuster always make sure that you keep your cool. Getting upset or being overly emotional will almost never help your case and probably just hurt in the long run. However don’t lie down if they deny you the higher payout. You can always appeal any decision that they make, recent statistics show that almost half of all appeals are decided in the customers favor.
If you’re still not satisfied by the outcome you can contact your local state regulator and or your insurance commissioner. They are there to help you the consumer.
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By admin On October 10, 2011
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Bricks are great – they keep our expensive heat in and the cold out, because they can (and should) be able to withstand all kinds of poor and extreme weather. However, anything that undermines the effectiveness of either can lead to major problems, so use this quick brick checklist to prepare for the coming winter!
One of the main problems with brick work doesn’t initially come from the bricks, but from the mortar (cement) which holds the bricks together. Check that:
• The mortar is still firm and is not crumbling away:
- If it has crumbled this means, at best, that rain and ice can easily be driven into the cracks in high winds, allowing damp to gradually seep into your home. At worst, it can also mean that the whole of your wall is being periodically undermined by the cold, wet weather.
- Mortar on corners of buildings can be particularly susceptible, so check carefully in these areas.
- If mortar is crumbling away, it will need replacing. This is called re-pointing and can either be a DIY job (if you have a thorough understanding of what you are doing) or an easy task for a contractor, but either way, repairs should be scheduled before any seasonally bad weather sets in.
• There are no plants growing in your walls. They may look pretty, but the roots of even the tiniest plants can systematically undermine your mortar and, overtime, bricks.
- Get the kids to help you ‘weed’ your walls carefully by gently tugging them out (don’t use trowels or tools as you could damage the bricks).
- Make a note of where these plants have grown, as this does indicate cracked bricks, spaces in brickwork or missing, inadequate mortar, all of which will need repair.
- Although not a weed, the same can be true of ivy, which can exacerbate problems if growing on walls that are already in a poor condition, remove it to enable wall repairs.
• Check for cracked bricks. It is possible to replace single bricks, or even areas of cracked brickwork, but it is recommended that you get a contractor to assess the extent of any long-term damage from cracked bricks and the repairs required.
• Lastly, remember to check your gutters. Yes, it sounds unrelated but you’ve seen the effect of a blocked gutter that results in a trickle of water down the side of a wall? Well, in the winter, this will be lead to an almost continual trickle which never has the chance to evaporate, but is likely to freeze. Ice on the surface of brickwork can cause cracks through expansion and over the period of a whole winter, a repeated cycle of thawing and re-freezing in the same spot can result in a major repair job – all for the want of a clear gutter!
By admin On September 9, 2011
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Tropical Storm Lee Still Wreaking Havoc on Northeast
One hundred thousand people living in the Northeast have been told to evacuate their homes this week as heavy downpours of rain brought by the remains of tropical storm Lee has caused severe flooding in the region. Numerous counties in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and Connecticut are under flash flood warnings, according to the National Weather Service. The town of Binghamton New York has experienced the brunt of the storm, having received over 15 inches of rain in the past two days.
A countless number of rivers and streams throughout the region are swelling and are at their flooding points. The Susquehanna River which runs for over 400 miles from Maryland to Massachusetts is expected to crest early Friday at about forty-one feet which is roughly the height of most levee systems in place along the river. If the levees do not hold, people in the nearby areas can expect to see devastating flooding.
In New York, governor Andrew Cuomo visited some of the hardest hit areas like Johnson City and Binghamton Thursday. He told the press that his state is on the verge of a serious crisis and that federal aide is needed desperately to help protect the people of New York. Towns in central and eastern New York are struggling to cleanup and re-build after Hurricane Irene’s recent onslaught of devastation.
The National Weather Service has reported that the week’s disastrous weather is the result of some unfortunate atmospheric conditions. A storm front moving along the jet stream picked up rain from the tropical storm while at the same time other tropical storm activity in the Atlantic have stopped the front from moving – resulting in heavy rains being poured down at an inches-per-hour rate.
Lee drenched the state of Louisiana last weekend as it moved in from the Gulf. As the massive system inched its way up the east coast at a snails pace, it dropped inches of rain per hour over already rain soaked land in many states. Much of the ground simply could not and can’t absorb the water being dumped by Lee. People in Pennsylvania and New York are not looking forward to the upcoming weekend as Lee is expected to cause widespread, heartbreaking flooding in many areas. Cleanup crews working in Reading and Allentown PA have been telling residents the work could take several weeks due to the volume of calls.
The timing of Lee is unfortunate and the unusually heavy rain it is delivering is very concentrated. And, ground has was already heavily saturated before the tropical system moved in has combined to cause the not often seen level of inundation that is flooding New York and Pennsylvania.
By admin On June 13, 2011
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Many homeowners are of the belief that they can add extra space to make their house bigger, by finishing their basement. This is valuable additional space to make your house more livable. Given below are some tips in finishing basements as a part of the home improvement process.
1. Check for dampness and correct the problem: Normally we do not care for the basement as much as we would care, for say, our living room; since we do not live in it. Check for dampness or presence of water in the corner or below the windows. Look for mold or mildew growth; they can be present anywhere in the wet surrounding of the basement. These can cause a lot of health problems, especially respiratory issues to those who have nasal allergies or lung problems. Specifically, water seeps in the basement due to some cracks in the flooring, wall, roof or windows; or due to faulty drainage system. So correct these issues by calling a mold specialist for taking care of mold growth, fixing cracks on the wall or anywhere in the basement and repairing the drainage system.
2. Call a professional to inspect the condition of the basement before going ahead with adding it to your home. Apart from checking for mold, cracks and drainage issue make sure that he or she checks for harmful gases like radon that may have collected under the basement.
3. Look for local building codes to find out certain things that you have to abide by before going for basement remodeling. For instance, there are codes for escape hatch, windows and doors for emergency exit. There may be conditions laid down about walls, stair and ceiling height.
4. Make sure that you make sufficient provisions for adequate insulation and add vapor barriers. While insulating walls on the exterior make sure you install a vapor barrier and a covering for the floor. This will prevent moisture from coming into the porous concrete.
5. If there are any appliances in the basement like for instance, a washing machine, which use water, check the hoses and pipes to see if there are any cause for leaks. Look for leaks in appliances where pipes go through the walls.
6. Decide on the kind of basement you want. You have many choices to exercise from, just make sure you do it wisely. If you want to make the basement an extension of your bedroom, you have to plan differently; and if you want to convert it into an office, you have to plan in another way. The designs depend on the specifications that you have set and what you have in your mind for the conversion of the basement. Just make sure that you have the plan drawn on the paper first; you can discuss it with your basement remodeling contractor and then put the plan into action.
By admin On May 5, 2011
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It needs no mention that taking out a mortgage loan is a big responsibility and a small step can lead to future financial woes. As a mortgage loan is a secured loan, you have to pledge collateral to secure the loan amount against any further risk. The mortgage loan amount has to be repaid back to the lender in equal monthly installments of principal and interest and thus you have to check a lot of things before just taking out the loan. Nothing can be better than using a home mortgage calculator and determining the various numbers that are important to know prior to taking out a loan. If you’re unaware of the benefits of a mortgage calculator, here’s help for you.
Determines the size of the loan that you can qualify for: The mortgage lenders will check your monthly income before lending you a loan in order to determine whether or not you’ll be able to make the monthly payments on time. Given your present monthly income, you must be wondering about the loan amount that you may qualify for. Instead of making manual calculations or disturbing your mortgage broker about it, you can easily use a home mortgage calculator to know the amount. Just feed in your monthly income to know the amount that you may take out.
Determines your mortgage affordability: The “how much house can I afford” is a type of mortgage calculator that helps you determine your mortgage affordability. Taking out a mortgage loan without considering your affordability is a big financial blunder. Thus, it is very important to calculate your affordability by using the mortgage affordability calculator. You’ll be able to know the loan amount in accordance with your budget.
Determines the monthly obligations: As you have to repay the loan in monthly installments of interest and balance, you have to make sure whether your income is enough to help you pay off your other debt obligations apart from your mortgage payments. You can determine the monthly payments that you have to make in accordance with the loan amount that you’ve taken out.
Helps you compare various loans: Before the invention of mortgage calculators, the borrowers had to resort to the mortgage brokers who would help them compare various mortgage loans and then settle on the best loan. Now you can do the same with a mortgage calculator and also take an informed decision about how each loan may provide you with financial benefit.
You can prevent losing your home to a foreclosure by taking the right decisions with the help of a home mortgage calculator. Reap the above mentioned benefits and make calculations easier with this financial tool. Make sure you download a calculator from an authentic site to ensure perfect calculations.
By admin On December 6, 2010
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Every time winter sets in, everyone face the menace of damage and the expenses that are caused by freezing pipes. All through the wintry weather, your house shall experience absolutely low temperatures which will burst your pipes. We would prefer you to take necessary measures so that you wouldn’t have to call a flood mitigation firm to come and dry out your house to avoid additional water damage.
If the temperature falls lower than -6 degrees Celsius, the water pipes in your house that have little or nearly no insulation could easily freeze and crack. Actually, just one-eighth inch sized crack in a water pipe can spray out enough water to quickly destroy everything close by, which may include your furniture, walls, appliances, floors and may even compromise the structural integrity of your house. Following just a couple of precautions can significantly reduce this risk!
• Disconnect your garden hosepipes and if possible, using an indoor valve, shut off and drain all the water from the water pipes that lead to outside faucets. Doing this will reduce the likelihood that the outside pipes and faucets leading to it will possibly freeze.
• A very good move would be to insulate all water pipes in your home’s attic or unheated areas. The more you insulate, the better your pipes will be protected. Always make sure that use the products just as intended by the company!
• The cold winter winds blowing through unnoticed openings can rapidly freeze up uncovered water pipes. Use high quality insulation to keep out the cold. During severe wind chills, even a small hole can allow adequate chilly air to cause a water pipe to freeze up
• Just in case if there is a leak, everybody in your family must know where the master shutoff is and what its function is. It is usually located at the place where the water line enters into your home from the street.
• Keep your bathroom and kitchen cabinet doors open so that the heat reaches the pipes under the sinks as well as the vanities near exterior walls, and allow the water to trickle off at vulnerable faucets.
• Before you vacate your house for the winter, make sure that you shut off the water by using the master shutoff or the customer shutoff valve. Also ensure that you also open and carefully drain off the entire household as well as the outdoor water lines. Any trapped water in the pipes can freeze causing them to expand and burst. Once all the water lines have been thoroughly drained, it is quite important to close all the household water lines again before you leave your house.
• You must set your thermostat no lower than 13 degree Celsius, however, maintaining low warmth in your house doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your water pipes wont freeze.
Taking the proper precautions mentioned above before winter approaches could actually save you from a lot of trouble as well as expenses from calling an emergency plumber to fix or repair your frozen or broken water pipes.
