Changes Coming To Your Next NC Homeowners Insurance Policy Renewal

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.

NC Homeowners Insurance Policy – What’s This Sewer Backup Coverage?

If you own a home in North Carolina, then you probably have a NC homeowners insurance policy. If so, you need to understand the sewer backup coverage option and whether you need this protection or not. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we insure thousands of homes and we are often asked about this very misunderstood add on coverage to the home insurance policy. In helping new clients with their policies we have found many homeowners who need this protection, haven’t added to their policy and some who don’t need it, are wasting their money purchasing it. So, what is the skinny on this coverage?

First of all, a quick explanation. Sewer backup coverage will pay the clean up and damages costs of a backup of your sewer system into your home. And yes, this does happen more often than you may realize. There are various causes but suffice to say, if it hits your home, you will have an awful mess on the lowest level of your home. And cleanup is expensive.

Now, what few people understand is that this coverage is already built in to some people’s homeowners insurance policy in North Carolina. That is because if the sewer system that backs up into your home is your own septic system, then the NC home insurance policy covers this loss automatically. The problem comes when you experience a back up of a sewer system that is not owned by you. For instance, if you are on a city or county sewer system, and their system causes a backup of sewer into your home, your policy is not going to cover this loss unless you have added the backup of sewers and drains coverage to your policy. And good luck trying to collect for damages from your city or county sewer manager.

So the simple answer is that if you are own a city or county sewer service, then you should add the back up of sewers and drains endorsement to your NC homeowners insurance policy. The cost of this endorsement is usually around $25 per year and your regular deductible will apply to this protection. If you have any questions about your homeowners insurance policy or want to know more about this important endorsement, please feel free to call our office, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.clinardinsurance.com.

The information for this article was taken from http://www.insuranceanswerguy.com