Your Duties After A Loss | Brooklyn Covered

If your policy includes coverage for additional living expenses (and if it doesn’t, go out today and buy a policy with this important coverage), you must again keep accurate records of your expenses for housing, food, and transportation.

Whether you rent or own your home, your insurance policy, in the Conditions section, lists your duties after a loss. Should you fail to comply with the duties which follow, your insurance company could deny you coverage.

  1. You must immediately notify your Broker, Agent, or your insurance company’s claims department of how, when and where the loss happened. Make sure to include the names, addresses and contact information of any witnesses and other injured parties.
  2. Notify the local authorities.
  3. You must protect the property from further loss or damage. This is where many people endanger their full indemnification after a covered loss. For example, if your roof has suffered damage, take as many photos as possible. Then, make reasonable and necessary repairs to prevent further damage. When this is done, take more pictures.
  4. Keep an accurate record of the expenses you incur to protect the property from further damage.
  5. If your home suffered water damage when the roof was compromised, make an inventory of the damaged property before you toss things out on the sidewalk, for example. Your inventory should include describe each item, and it’s cost. Again, take as many pictures as possible to prove your loss. Original receipts, and/or instruction manuals, are a terrific source of proof of ownership. I always tell my clients to prepare a complete Personal Home Inventory using a Travelers Insurance brochure as a guide. Your work at preparing a claim will go a lot faster and easier when you already have a prepared inventory.
  6. If your policy includes coverage for additional living expenses (and if it doesn’t, go out today and buy a policy with this important coverage), you must again keep accurate records of your expenses for housing, food, and transportation.
  7. Remember, you will be required to sign a sworn statement about all the damages and costs you’ve incurred. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you to inflate your loss and expense amounts. These are acts of fraud, and your company could refuse to provide coverage for any insured engaged in these acts.

Suffering a loss is tough, but you can make your recovery easier by following these tips.

Eustace L. Greaves Jr., LUTCF is a New York State licensed independent insurance agent and broker. To get a copy of the Personal Home Inventory Brochure, send Eustace an email to [email protected]. Or, stop by his office at 651 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238, for a hard copy. Just give him a call at 718-783-2722 so he can tidy up the office before you stop by

My Homeowners Insurance Policy, Part 2.5 | Brooklyn Covered

Here’s another suggestion. Why not get a whole-house review? I’m honored to refer my friend and client, Mr. Curtis (“Caulk Is Cheap”) Godoy, a NYC licensed and insured General Contractor, Master Carpenter and EPA Certified Painter. You can reach him at 1-347-581-5562, or drop him an email at [email protected] . If he thinks anything is amiss, he’ll let you know.

(In our last thrilling published post, we learned how failing to maintain our homes can lead to increased and larger claims, causing us to lose our voluntary homeowners insurance policy, and the accompanying threat of the dreaded force-placed policy.)

Okay, Why Should I Care?

Just one word.

Accessibility.

Accessibility to affordable, quality insurance in the voluntary market for you and the community you live in.

Let’s say your community’s claim results spike. Soon, the premiums for homeowners insurance could demonstrate a “similar propensity for growth,” or, go up like crazy. Or, in a worse-case scenario, major companies will choose to neither write nor renew policies in your community, providing fertile ground for the entry of more expensive players.

And, what happens if a homeowner can’t qualify for one of the newer companies due to their checkbook balance, or the credit score from hell?

Well, there’s always force-placed insurance.

Don’t I paint the rosiest pictures?

It’s Time

It’s time to renew your commitment to a disciplined program of home maintenance. With it, you should no longer suffer pipes or roofs leaking with regularity. You’ll replace the flexible hoses behind the washing machine with new, high-pressure hoses designed to resist kinks and sudden breaks. You’ll begin regularly performing a deep cleaning of your clothes dryer to prevent lint fires in either your dryer or dryer vent. (You do have a dryer vent, don’t you?)

You’ll caulk around your windows and doors, saving money on heating and cooling while keeping rain outside. You’ll check to ensure your windows are properly screwed into the frame. You’ll make sure your landscaping draws water away from your foundation, and not towards it. You’ll check and clean gutters and downspouts.

In short, you’ll do what every homeowner should do: Maintain your home.

Here’s another suggestion. Why not get a whole-house review? I’m honored to refer my friend and client, Mr. Curtis (“Caulk Is Cheap”) Godoy,  a NYC licensed and insured General Contractor, Master Carpenter and EPA Certified Painter. You can reach him at 1-347-581-5562, or drop him an email at [email protected] . If he thinks anything is amiss, he’ll let you know. If he feels you need a new roof, he’ll contact Gus Jean Louis, a.k.a., Gus the Roofer. You can reach him at 1-347-564-3009, or email him at [email protected]. Pipes leaking? Contact Keith Huggins of Pusky Plumbing at 1-917-531-8385. Mr. Godoy  can put you in touch with qualified professionals who are licensed and insured. Why do I recommend these gentlemen? Because they are the only building professionals I let do any work in my mom’s home. They are true professionals, and have yet to disappoint.

Next time, we’ll see how your home’s location can cause your banishment to the force-placed insurance market.

(Need a plan for home maintenance? Just drop me an email at [email protected], and I’ll email you a copy of the home maintenance schedule provided by Travelers Property and Casualty. And subscribe to BrooklynCovered.com for automatic notification of every new post. No email address? No problem. Just provide me with your address and phone information and I’ll  send you the brochure.)

My Homeowners Insurance Policy, Part 2 | Brooklyn Covered

When the economy was blasting away like a furnace in a steel mill, homeowners actually spent money, copious amounts of money, on the regular maintenance of their homes. This investment, a direct reflection of the pride of homeownership, came with a accompanying benefit: Because of the amount of care and attention paid to keeping their homes in tip-top shape, there were fewer claims impacting, for example, my agencys results. And, the claims which were submitted were smaller in size. Less cost, less frequency.

(In our last exciting segment of “Dude, Where’s My Homeowners Insurance Policy?”, we learned submitting a claim during the first 60 days after applying for homeowners (and auto) insurance is akin to bringing a vampire out in the daylight. Without the special sunshade.

Today’s installment will continue the study of claims and how they affect your ability to purchase homeowners insurance from preferred companies.)

Where’s My Homeowners Insurance Policy, Part 2

Let me start by saying in all my over 29 years in the insurance business, I’ve never seen claims come across my desk with the frequency and size the like of which I’ve seen in the last 20 years. You can blame Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee all you want. Truth is, too many people are simply not investing any real money and energy in maintaining their homes.

I blame the sin and disease of deferred maintenance.

Home Maintenance, The Economy, Deferred Home Maintenance

I believe there is a direct correlation between the state of the economy and home maintenance.

When the economy was blasting away like a furnace in a steel mill, homeowners actually spent money, copious amounts of money, on the regular maintenance of their homes. This investment, a direct reflection of the pride of homeownership, came with an accompanying benefit: Because of the amount of care and attention paid to keeping their homes in tip-top shape, there were fewer claims impacting, for example, my agency’s results. And, the claims were smaller. Less cost, less frequency.

Sounds like an old television commercial. The kind I really like.

The Years The Music Died

Then came 2006, 2007, and (why, oh why Lord?), 2008 and 2009, 2010, and 2011.

When once non-existent claims found life, and once-small claims became huge. When diamond rings began to “disappear,’ and water damage claims once averaging $3,000 to $5,000, suddenly ballooned to $10,000, $20,000 and beyond.

In one case, a clients home suffered interior water damage from a heavy rainstorm, caused by a leaky roof, caused by deferred maintenance, caused by reduced family income, further exacerbated by the family purchasing a home which was overpriced and in poor condition, inspected by an appraiser who over-appraised the property, accompanied by an equally unaffordable monthly mortgage committment.

The company I’d insured them with paid the claim. The check they received, less their deductible, should have been used to repair the defective roof, and replace water-damaged furniture, rugs and clothes . This way, when the raindrops fall in the future, no more leaky roof, no interior damage.

Your Homeowners Insurance Policy Is Not A Piggy Bank

Guess what? The next year, after a heavy rain, the same homeowner submitted yet another claim for the same cause of loss! Even the insurance company’s claims department was shocked they’d submit the same claim two years in a row.

I called the client, basically asking “What the hell? Why are you submitting the same claim two (2) years in a row? Why didn’t you repair the roof with the money you received last year?”

Their reply? “We used the money to catch up on the mortgage.”

Oy.

So, the company paid the claim, again. When policy renewal time rolled around, though, they got a different letter from the insurance company. Basically it read, “Your policy is being non-renewed for the following reason: Negative claim history.”

When you receive a letter like this from most voluntary companies, your options are few. You are done. End of story.

Now, this particular story could have had a happy ending, were I able to place them with another preferred company.

No one wanted them. Well, that’s not entirely true. One company did. At a premium of over $9,000 each year. (Don’t get all self-righteous and indignant. You want to dance to the band, you’ve got to pay the man, or in this case, the insurance company.)

So, once the bank learned their voluntary homeowners insurance policy lapsed, they graciously agreed to place a force-placed policy on the home. At a premium of $4,800 each year.

Heck, it was cheaper than the other policy I offered them.

(Our next post will address why home maintenance is important to individual homeowners and the communities they live in. Also, for the first time in the history of BrooklynCovered.com, referrals to home maintenance professionals! And please, take a minute and subscribe to BrooklynCovered.com by entering your name and email address at the top of the column on your right.) 

A Death In The Family | Brooklyn Covered

A Death in The Family

It finally happened.

My toaster, the first toaster I ever owned, died last week.

Requiem For A Toaster

“Old Toasty” was a black and silver Hamilton Beach / Proctor Silex Model 22208. Series B1699. Type T16. I purchased it back in 1980. Oh yes, 1980. And believe me, we enjoyed good toast. Man, could “Old Toasty” toast.

At least I’ll always have those happy memories of toast so perfectly tanned, all the beautiful people in South Beach cried with shame and jealously.

With no fear of skin cancer.

After all of those years, however, the electric cord and an interior filament finally gave out.  The resulting spitting sparks produced a sound and light show lasting about ten seconds, the likes of which I never want to witness again.

Your toaster died. Who cares?

You may think I’m being overly sentimental about a 30 year-old toaster going to the big scrap metal yard in the sky. Well, if you own a Brooklyn home, condo, or co-op, think again. Just like “Old Toasty,” every appliance and component in your home or building has an expected useful life. And, if you’re not careful, you could find yourself replacing them before their time. Which will result in unexpected costs for repairs, or  an increased monthly maintenance bill.

Think about this: Unless you’ve just purchased a brand-new home, everything in the home you own is already into it’s life expectancy. And if your home is over 80 years old (hello, Brooklyn) the time to plan for component replacement may be sooner than you care to think about.

I recently read  “Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components”,  produced in February, 2007 by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Bank of America. The results of this study were based on telephone surveys of people in the trades, home manufacturers, and researchers to learn how long parts of houses should  last. (You’ll find the full study on the National Association of Home Builders website, http://nahb.com)

Now, remember climate, quality of installation and other factors play a huge role in how long and well home components last. In my opinion, the most important facet in keeping a home in tip-top shape is to do just that – keep it in tip-top shape. Owning a home is not just about watching your big-screen TV’s, entertaining in your home theatres, and backyard barbeques. It’s also painting the house, making sure the landscaping continues to draw water away from the house, checking the roof for damage, and cleaning your gutters and leaders, just to name a few regular chores.

Take the Kink Out Of Your Hoses Before You Spring A Leak

It’s caulking around windows and door frames to create a greater level of energy efficiency in your home, thus saving valuable cooling and heating dollars. Making sure you clean lint filters in clothes dryers, and replacing the metal vent hose. Running the washing machine with just detergent and bleach to clean and disinfect it. Changing the old hoses with new metal-reinforced, high pressure hoses to decrease the risk of blown hoses and the floods which follow.

So, How Long Should Things Last?

Here’s a sample of the expected life of common home components:

  • Countertops:  Natural stone countertops should last about 20 years.
  • Faucets and fixtures have an average life expectancy of 15 years
  • A bathroom shower enclosure should last about 50 years.
  • Different roofing materials will vary greatly in expected life expectancy. Slate copper and clay or concrete roofs last longest – over 50 years. Asphalt shingles about 20 years and wood shakes about 30 years.
  • Aluminum windows should last about 15 to 20 years. I found it a bit shocking to learn wooden windows should last for upwards of 30 years!

Of course, without the proper maintenance like painting window frames and trimming trees so heavy branches don’t land on and crack roofs (yes, I’ve paid several claims for Spanish Tile roofs cracked by falling branches), any component will fail to live up to its expected useful life.

There’s Another Reason To Care

Take a moment and take out the homeowners insurance policy for your Brooklyn brownstone, brick, or frame home. When you look under exclusions, you’ll see losses caused by your failure to properly maintain your insured premises are excluded. This means the only way to repair the damage will depend on you taking money out of your own pocket.

So, if the brownstone or limestone on your exterior wall is chipped, call a company which specializes in this type of restoration. Water from the ruptured pipe in the wall creating a pool in the basement? Call the plumber.

And don’t wait. Do it right away.

You can also enroll in the Neighborhood Housing Services Home Maintenance course conducted at the Bedford-Stuyvesant office on Gates Avenue. There, you’ll learn how to do everything from fixing a leaky faucet to rebuilding a bathroom.* 

So, if you want your appliances and other home components to last as well and as long as “Old Toasty”, it’s time to really pay attention to their care and maintenance.

And don’t worry, we have another toaster. And yes, it’s another Proctor Silex.

Always have a backup.

“Old Toasty” is dead. Long live “Old Toasty.”

* To learn more about NHS’s Home Maintenance Course, call the Bedford-Stuyvesant NHS office at 718-919-2100, or go to their website, http://nhsnyc.org/en/find-an-nhs-near-you/bedford-stuyvesant .

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