Tag: Condominium Insurance

Important Insurance Facts Homeowners and Renters Should Know

graphic of a one-family house that speaks to the need for a home mortgage
Home is where the heart is.

My Let’s Talk About – Insurance series will examine important insurance facts homeowners and renters should know.

I firmly believe in producing insurance plans based on client needs, not the rantings of insurance commercials featuring well-known celebrities. (See: https://brooklyncovered.com/lets-set-the-record-straight-about-customizing-your-insurance/)

No insurance policy will cover every possibility of loss. A well-designed insurance program, however, provides you with a solid protective foundation against many insured causes of loss.

I design insurance programs that address their property insurance coverage needs based on whether they are essential, supplemental, or optional.

Essential coverages are coverages you must purchase today.

Supplemental coverages, while of high importance, can wait a while.

Optional coverages address losses you may never face based on your lifestyle, possessions, etc. Something to brag about at the neighborhood barbecue.

Just for today, we’ll unearth some important insurance facts about essential coverages.

a photograph of nyc condos. co-ops and rental buildings
Co-ops, condos, and rentals, oh my!

Important Insurance Facts Homeowners and Renters Should Know:

Replacement Cost Coverage for your home or apartment

Make an appointment with your current insurance agent or broker for a comprehensive insurance review. The primary focus of this review will be your property’s replacement cost calculation. Simply put, this is the amount of money needed today to fully repair your home or apartment in case of a covered cause of loss.

Flood Insurance

Losses caused by flood waters from an outside water source are not covered by your typical one-to-four family, renters, cooperative, or condominium policy. (See https://brooklyncovered.com/dont-add-your-tears-to-water-losses-at-home/)
The only way to guarantee flood coverage is a stand-alone flood insurance policy.

Water Backup and Sump Discharge Or Overflow policy endorsement

If this endorsement is not added to your policy, you’ll lack coverage for damage caused by sewer backups or sump pump failures.

Loss Assessment endorsement

This endorsement protects against uninsured losses to common areas assessed to apartment owners and homeowners in some homeowners associations.

Personal Umbrella Liability Policy

While many companies offer up to $1,000,000 in liability coverage, in today’s litigious society, that may not be enough to protect you from lawsuits. This policy also provides additional protection while operating the family car, boat, Jet Ski, etc.

Valuable Items

Your base policy limits coverage for jewelry, cameras, fine china, artwork, furs, and other unique valuables, which is limited in a basic policy.
Appraise and insure these items separately to guarantee full protection.

Your Home Inventory

Stop taking pictures of your meals. Instead, take pictures of your possessions, down to the last sweat sock.

Next steps:

Finally, call your insurance representative to schedule an annual review. This will ensure that your insurance program always includes at least the Essential Coverages.

You can always send your personal coverage questions by email to [email protected].

Meet the author:
About the author

Eustace L. Greaves, Jr., LUTCF, is an NYS-licensed Independent Insurance Agent and Broker with 42 years of experience, 29 of which as the owner of Bridge Insurance Agency and Greaves Financial Services.

 

Like to speak with Eustace?

Eustace wants to assist you with your home, life, flood, disability, renters, auto, cooperative, condominium, and wedding insurance needs. You can reach him at his mobile number,  718-489-2218, his office number, 718-783-2722, or by email at [email protected]. You can also visit his website, https://www.greavesinsurance.com, and complete any available “Contact Us” forms.

 

How to subscribe to the “Never Knew News” newsletter

If you’d like to receive a free subscription to Eustace’s monthly newsletter, “Never Knew News,” go to his website, https://www.greavesinsurance.com, and click on any of the Subscribe buttons.

 

Let’s Set The Record Straight About – Customizing Your Insurance

Today’s clever insurance commercials are a necessary evil. They provide more information about bundling and saving and less about the coverages you, your family, and your business really need.

We can change that by simply asking the right questions.

Customizing Your Insurance

No insurance company owns a monopoly on helping you customize your insurance.

None.

Commercials, Commercials, Commercials

Commercials are designed to increase brand awareness using gimmicks, including celebrity spokespersons, animals, car crashes and chases, and, well, anything they think you will remember when it is time to buy insurance.

Does Every Company Allow You To Customize Your Insurance?

You can customize your home, life, auto, renters, co-op, condo, disability, long-term care, personal umbrella, and, yes, even your flood insurance with any company licensed to do business in the State of New York and every other state in the Union.

Every company gives you the ability to customize your insurance.

Every single one.

The problem is that most consumers aren’t served by most of the television commercials aired today.

They are goaded into a perpetual state of dissatisfaction with their current career, even when their current career is doing a good job for them.

It’s What Consumers Don’t Know About Their Insurance Which Hurts Them

Each year, I make at least 25 insurance-based presentations for HUD-approved housing agencies and organizations such as Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City, Harlem Churches for Community Improvement, and Impacct. I always ask those in attendance to tell me their automobile insurance coverages. Inevitably, 14 out of 15 give the same answer, “Full Coverage.”

Not 25/50/10.

Not 250/500/100.

Full coverage.

When I ask them how much their policies cover in an accident, they usually reply that they’re not sure, but they did save money by bundling their home and auto.

Yay,

Buying What You Need Is A Two-Edged Sword

As long as the policy or policies quoted for you meet your state’s required minimum coverage limits, buying the cheapest policy or bundle possible is actually all you need.

What if, though, you just struck and killed a pedestrian or lost control of your vehicle and totaled a house? Will your policy provide you with the actual amount of money you will need when the jury hands down some obscenely massive award against you?

Imagine coming home to find;

  • Your home is on fire.
  • Two (2) feet of toxic sewage water sloshing about your finished basement.
  • Burglars paid you an expensive visit while you are at work or the market.
  • Your good dog had a bad day.
  • There are three feet of floodwater in your home, and you don’t own a flood insurance policy.

What Questions Should I Ask?

  • What, if any, hoops must I jump through in case of a claim?
  • Are policy coverages or exceptions more important to know?
  • Why do I have duties after a loss?
  • In case of a covered cause of loss, how easily will my claim be settled?
  • Is your claim service fair?


What Should My Insurance Company and/or Independent Agent and Broker Teach Me?

  • Why buying home insurance based on your home’s replacement cost is essential.
  • How to determine your condominium and cooperative apartment “walls in” insurance coverage based on what a licensed contractor would charge to completely repair fire or water-damaged walls, ceilings, and floors.
  • It is important for renters to complete a personal home inventory down to the last sweat sock.
  • How owning Life and Disability insurance will prevent financial disaster should death or disability destroy the earning power of a family breadwinner.
  • Reasons why every property policy should include Water and Sewer Backup coverage. And why every cooperative and condominium apartment owner should add the Loss Assessment endorsement to their coverage.
  • Why buying flood insurance, even when their home is not in a high-risk flood zone, is a smart financial move.

And, of course, what coverages do I actually need to protect my family and home from most disasters?

The other day a woman asked me for my honest opinion of who I felt was the best insurance company out there.

My answer?

The one with whom you secured the proper policies, with sufficient coverages, which is in force at the time of your claim.

A company that won’t make you jump through hoops to settle a  claim fairly. An independent insurance agent and broker willing and able to service your policies. With premiums accurately reflecting the coverages your policies provide.

Nothing else matters.

As for the commercials, well, give my regards to Broadway.

At least until we can enjoy live theater again. Until then, stay healthy and safe.

 

Eustace L. Greaves, Jr., LUTCF is an independent insurance agent and broker, licensed to conduct business in New York State. Contact Eustace at 718-783-2722, 718-489-2218, by email at [email protected] or by completing the contact form on this page, or  one of the many contact forms on his website, https://greavesinsurance.com.

 

 

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