Home owners insurance

Charlie M · Oct 22, 2015

Reading Allen in NE's thread about his house fire got me thinking about the house fire my parents had back in the 90's. They were in an older house that wasn't overly fixed up. Insurance company only paid for the value of the house, not to replace it. Make sure you're home owners policy states replacement cost as there can be a big difference. My parents got enough to pay off the original mortgage and clean up the site but in their 60's had to take out a new mortgage all because their home owners insurance didn't include replacement cost.

dhermesc · Oct 22, 2015

With a lot of insurance companies the age of the home determines "replacement cost" or "loss value" and they'll state it in the policy - usually along with the value of the loss they will cover. My policy lists every building and it's estimated replacement value. If you have an issue with the values assigned the time to claim a higher value is when the policy is written - not when you already have a loss. My experience has been both are usually pretty good - with the right insurance company (meaning not Farm Bureau). My brother's house burned down about 10 years ago. A very old (85+ years) home in poor condition. He had looked at actually tearing it down and putting up a new one but didn't because the money wasn't right. The old furnace sparked off a fire that burned it to the foundation. A house that was marginal at best netted him over $98K with 60% more for contents.

oldtanker · Oct 22, 2015

(quoted from post at 07:17:50 10/22/15) Reading Allen in NE's thread about his house fire got me thinking about the house fire my parents had back in the 90's. They were in an older house that wasn't overly fixed up. Insurance company only paid for the value of the house, not to replace it. Make sure you're home owners policy states replacement cost as there can be a big difference. My parents got enough to pay off the original mortgage and clean up the site but in their 60's had to take out a new mortgage all because their home owners insurance didn't include replacement cost.

That's a common problem with insurance provided as part of the mortgage. Anyone with a mortgage provided policy needs to read that policy. Odds are it pays the mortgage off and that's it. You can buy supplemental insurance. Talk to your agent or an agent, take your policy with you. You need to look at both Replacement Cost Value (RCV) on any structure and your personal property.

Rick

evilboweivel · Oct 22, 2015

I have full replacement on my homeowners with State Farm.
They insist on setting the value of the house for the policy.
The value State farm set is 70k over what the house appraised at and the premium is based on their value.
I have 2% deductible and still pay way over 1k annually for insurance.

Old Scovy · Oct 22, 2015

You had better hope you never need it as State Farm will find a lot more reasons to up the deductible. I bought my house here in Fl. in 1991 and the home owners was really low, Then the next year they doubled it. I said just cancel it. They tried to tell me I couldn't do that. I said why not? You run the risk so now I will run the risk. Well now I got them beat because now just the lot it sets on is worth more than I paid for the house and lot. And don't tell me about liability because this is Fl and you can't take my house or my car. On the circle where my house is there are only 3 that have home owners insurance. All the others on the street have nothing also.

37chief · Oct 22, 2015

I have State farm also. The agent keeps my policy updated every few years. Another good thing is having good smoke detectors. I needed to take out a loan on my house last year, and had to add a couple more detectors . Here in my town the city makes new home construction have sprinkler systems installed. Instead of fire damage now your house gets flooded, which I guess is better than no house. Stan

Traditional Farmer · Oct 22, 2015

Very few people actually read and know what is in their insurance policies,they just
'hope' they're covered.If a policy is unusally cheap you can bet something important ain't
being covered.

old bc · Oct 22, 2015

My house is over 100 years old. My policy
has a stated value that they will pay if it
is destroyed. I upped it a couple of years ago
when my friends house burned.

Home owners insurance

Charlie M

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dhermesc

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oldtanker

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evilboweivel

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Old Scovy

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37chief

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Traditional Farmer

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old bc

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