Effective April 1, 2014, every homeowners insurance policy
in NC is changing as it renews. No, this
isn’t an April Fools joke, but for a few unwary homeowners, this will be no
joking matter. And while most of these
changes are minor, there is at least one big reduction in coverage that could
affect many people. Here’s a summary of
the changes to this form but as always, my advice is that everyone read their
policy carefully and consult with their agent for any questions they may
have.
·
A sublimit of 10% of your personal property
coverage amount will now apply to any personal property located in a storage
facility. This is the most significant
change and could catch some homeowners by surprise should they have valuable
items stored in a storage unit. If you
have personal property stored in off premises storage units, then you should
contact your insurance agent before your next renewal and make arrangements to
protect that property.
·
The new NC homeowners form has a new sublimit of
$250 that applies to antennas, tapes, wires, records, disks, and other media in
or upon a motor vehicle. For those of
you with valuable CD collections traveling around in your car with you each
day, just know that you are now going to be unprotected. Might I suggest you convert them to mp3 files
and put them on a jump drive or perhaps subscribe to a streaming service?
·
For business personal property located away from
your residence premises the sublimit is
increasing from $500 to $1500.
·
The theft peril as regards Personal Property
located in student housing is being
modified to allow coverage to apply as long as the student has been there in the
past 90 days instead of the previous 60 days.
·
The incidental low power recreational vehicle
liability coverage has been modified to expressly exclude motorized scooters
used off of your residence premises. If
you are one of the many intrepid souls saving gas by driving your scooter to
work take note; you will now need to purchase liability coverage for your
scooters.
At Clinard Insurance Group, we want every insurance buyer to
be an informed consumer. We insure
thousands of families all across North Carolina, helping them with their homeowners
insurance, auto
insurance as well as business
insurance and life
insurance. If you would like help with any of your
insurance needs, please give us a call at 877-687-7557.
