Your Trusted Real Estate Advisor

Home insurance is not something we think about often.  When we do, we realize why the lender's term (which shows on your settlement sheet at closing) is "hazard insurance".

I saw this first-hand on the 4^th of July--last week. The home purchased by my clients less than two months ago caught fire.

The preliminary judgment of the fire's origin is spontaneous combustion in a bag of rags, one of which contained some paint thinner.  It evidently doesn't take much paint thinner to spontaneously combust if it is in a contained area.

Fire is the ultimate hazard for most homeowners who have to file a claim on their "hazard insurance". (Floods are another hazard we're hearing about in many parts of the country, but normal hazard insurance typically won't cover flood damage. Flood insurance is needed for that.)

With a fire, contact with your insurance company will start before the firefighters leave. With a certain level of damage, the house must be boarded up. If you can't immediately contact your insurance company for guidance, the fire marshal will call a "board-up" company to come out and board up the house to prevent entry by unauthorized people.

My clients have had a bad experience with their insurance company that can help us all.  To minimize hassles if you have a fire, make sure you...

• insure with a company that has 24/7 contact numbers
• know how to find those numbers quickly (even if you can't get back in the house)
• insure with a company that has a local office for quick response
• check your insurance policy for coverage amount and talk with your agent about it
• have "full replacement coverage" in case of catastrophic damage
• insure with a company that uses local claims adjusters
• get guidance from others about how much money you might need for immediate replacement of clothes, food, housing, etc.
• keep asking for answers and assistance (get a notebook and log every call and contact you have with the insurance company, fire department, and others--having names and phone numbers at hand, along with their statements, will expedite future requests)

I hope you never have to experience coming home to see your home on fire. If you do, perhaps this experience will have prepared you to make the best of a very bad situation.