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Home is truly where the heart is; unfortunately, that doesn’t stop accidents, fires or thefts from happening at home. This is why homeowners insurance (HOI) is essential – and why understanding your coverage is crucial.

Many think, “it won’t happen to me,” but consider these sobering statistics:

• A home burglary takes place every 16 seconds.
• A child dies in a pool every five days in the summertime.
• Every 55 seconds, a home will be destroyed by fire.

These days, there are many security measures you can take to protect against these threats. And by implementing good security, you may also get discounts on your homeowners insurance, and potentially avoid increased premiums if you ever need to file a claim. Consider these three ways to protect your home and family.

Three Ways to Protect Your Home & Family

Protection against burglary 

A good alarm system is one of the very best ways to discourage criminals, who generally are looking for properties that are easy to break into and pose minimal risk of getting caught. In fact, homes without alarms are three times more likely to be broken into than those without.

Many people wonder about guard dogs: In most situations, you won’t need a trained guard dog, as your household pet may well scare off burglars by barking and calling attention to the crime. Trained guard dogs will defend your home physically, but only you can decide if you really need this type of protection.

Incidentally, you needn’t be concerned about motion detectors sensing your cat or dog; there are motion detection alarms that respond to burglars, but not your protective pup.

Fire protection

Not surprisingly, the majority of house fires start in kitchens, and occur most often between October and January. They can result in tragedy, so taking measures to protect against this potentially devastating catastrophe is crucial.

Ideally you should have at the very least one smoke detector on each level of your home. Keep them in good working order: Test batteries monthly and replace them once a year. A good habit to get into is changing the battery on a date you’ll always remember, such as your anniversary, birthday or other special celebration.

Create an emergency fire escape plan with your family and hold regular fire drills. Also, keep fire extinguishers around the house, particularly in or close to the kitchen. Check them regularly, too.

Protection against bodily injury

There’s a good reason insurers charge higher premiums for homeowners with swimming pools on their properties. Insurers see pools as “attractive nuisances,” acknowledging that while pools can be great, they also can be extremely dangerous. Many insurers require homeowners with pools to have a fence with a lockable gate around the pool, and you should also post pool rules for children or guests. Include “No Horseplay.”

Ensure that everyone in the family can swim, and light the pool with flood lights and motion sensors at night.

You may want to use lighting to highlight other areas outdoors, not just for aesthetic reasons but to prevent visitors from falling on your property and injuring themselves. Also make sure you’ve removed or fixed any potential safety hazards, such as broken boards, uneven steps and holes in the lawn; as well many jurisdictions require you to have sturdy railings on outside steps. Find out if yours is one. Don’t allow the kids to leave wagons or bikes in the driveway, and keep the deck and walkways clear of items someone might trip over.

Most importantly, ensure you’re protected against these eventualities with the right homeowners’ policy; If you should find yourself a victim of theft or fire, or on the receiving end of an injury or death claim, wishing you had more insurance – or even some insurance – won’t help you.

It’s unfortunate that so many tragedies occur in our own backyards, but with preventive measures and the right homeowners’ coverage, those who matter most – your family – can feel safe at home.

This information was presented by:

Condon-Meek Insurance

727-446-5051

This article and any information contained herein is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.  The publisher will not be responsible for errors or omissions or any damages, howsoever caused, that result from its use.  Seek competent legal counsel for advice on any legal matter.

I’m pretty confident that if you asked anyone who has ever owned a rental property you would get an overwhelming response that it’s not as lucrative or easy as they thought it would be. In fact, owning a rental property can be a major pain, and end up costing you a ton of money!

I certainly don’t mean to be a “Debbie Downer”, and I know that if it’s done right it can be lucrative, but from an insurance agent’s perspective, I don’t see a lot of people doing it right.

So you’re probably thinking, “Well Chris, you are an insurance agent. What do you know about real estate or rental properties? Why should I take advice from you?”

I’m not a real estate agent, and I don’t own a rental property. However, several of my friends/family/clients/co-workers own rentals, and because I insure a bunch of their properties, I’ve had a first hand account of the process, and I’ve learned what to do, and what not to do.

[Read more…]

I was recently asked this question by one of our Condon-Meek Insurance clients, and thought I would share the answer here for our readers.

There are a lot of things that go into homeowners and auto insurance rates, one of them being credit. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from people who don’t like the fact that insurance companies use credit in their underwriting.

Some people have absolutely no idea that it’s used in the rate at all.

At the end of the day, there’s not much we can do about it though. Insurance companies have been using credit in their rates for decades, and that’s not likely to change.

By the way, insurance companies don’t pull your credit like a mortgage company or credit card company does. There is no negative impact on your credit as a result of an insurance company looking at it.

When I say “pull” what I mean is that the insurance company is doing what’s called a soft inquiry, which is not the same thing as having your credit pulled (hard inquiry).

When does credit play a role in insurance rates?
It’s important to understand that insurance companies don’t continuously check or monitor your credit. Usually, they only check it when you first get a quote and/or sign up with them in the very beginning.

This means that if your credit score increases (or decreases) your insurance company does not automatically know about it.

So, to my customers question of whether or not his increased credit score will lower his rates, the answer is not automatically.

What has to be done on our side as the agent is contact the carrier the insurance and ask them to do what’s commonly referred to as a “re-score”. This is when the insurance company can re-run the person’s credit (soft inquiry) to see if there is any positive bearing on the rate.

This isn’t something that the insurance company is going to let the agency do every single year, so it’s not worth even asking unless there has been a significant change in your credit score, and only you as the customer would know if that was the case.

If you’d like to get a better handle on your credit rating, it could be helpful to setup credit monitoring. We hope this was helpful! As always, leave us comment below if you have any questions.

Why do my auto insurance rates keep going up even though my car is getting older?  At Condon-Meek Insurance, many of our clients ask this question so I would like to address it from a couple of angles.

First things first, even though it’s called car/auto insurance, it covers more than just your car. It should technically be called “auto-owners” insurance, similarly to how home insurance is actually called “home owners insurance”.

It’s important to understand that there are a lot of variables that go into insurance premiums, and with auto insurance, it’s no different.

The insurance company is much more concerned with you crashing into someone and causing them (or yourself) bodily harm, or death, than they are about your car. A car is a material possession which can be replaced.

A human life is not.

When is the last time you looked at your auto insurance policy?
If you look at it you’ll notice there are a lot of different coverages on your auto policy.

Bodily injury
Property damage
Un-insured motorist
Under-insured motorist
Medical Payments
Loss of Income
Funeral Expense
Loss of use
Rental Reimbursement

These are all things that you are covered for on your auto policy. How many of them have to do with your car?

None.

How many of them have a price next to them on your policy?

All of them.

Your car isn’t the only thing you’re being charged for on your policy
That’s because auto insurance covers far more important things than your car as mentioned above.

Let me re-phrase that: your car insurance rate isn’t just based on your car.

You’re not the only one…
It’s also important to understand that you are not the only person your insurance company insures. You are one fish in an ocean of other fish, sharks, and sea creatures, all who have different characteristics and risk profiles.

Insurance is all about spreading costs over a large number (risk pool) of people, which each person paying their fare share. That risk pool is constantly changing, and is impacted by a ton of different things, including the overall economic climate.

This means that you are sharing in the cost of millions of other people, many of whom may have poor loss history and/or credit.

That’s what insurance is though — sharing in the cost.

The next time your auto insurance rates go up, take a look at the big picture. Make sure you’re looking at ALL of the coverages, and corresponding rates.

Hope this helps!  If you would like to know more about Car Insurance be sure to visit our page dedicated to it.