Examining your homeowners policy may not rank high on your annual home-maintenance checklist. Yet following the five steps below will save you big bucks now and a lot of grief down the road.
- Measure How Much Coverage You need
Instead check for the the recent per-square-foot replacement costs in your area, available from your local home- builders association. The difference can be sizable. Then the guaranteed replacement policies, which protect you from inflated labor and material costs.
2.Inspect What's Not Covered
All state of danger involving risk is not covered.As homeowners learned the hard way after Hurricane Irene last August, standard policies exclude damage from flooding, not to mention earthquakes and landslides.
If you live in a high-risk area for floods, you may be required to add supplemental coverage, which can cost $1,700 to $3,300 on a $150,000 building and $50,000 worth of contents.
3.Recheck the Deductible
It may not be the same as it was a year ago.There will be deductibles and change from set dollar amounts to percentages.
n general, you want to go for the highest deductible you can afford to lower your premiums. And ensure that deductibles are a percentage of the insured value of your entire home, not of what needs to be fixed.
4.Hammer Away at Your Premium
Knowing whether the increase resulted from changes in your risk profile or from broad-based increases in the marketplace will help you negotiate and comparison-shop—which you should do at every renewal or at least every couple of years.
5.Clean Up Your Work Area
Finish your project by getting all your documents in place.For extra protection, scan and store all of that information digitally on a flash drive, and remember to keep that off-site, says Bach. If disaster strikes, you don't want this critical information to be at risk.
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