Episode 1576
Are you covered?? Lets talk homeowners and renters insurance
Do you own a home? Do you rent? Our question of the day is "ARE YOU COVERED" with your insurance plan. Lets chat about the mistakes that happen with insurance and if you are covered or what questions you need to be looking at to make sure you can replace what is yours.
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Mentioned in this episode:
A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard
For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/
Baldwin Hardware
Transcript
[00:00:30] Eric Goranson: Education. Thanks for joining us today. Happy midweek special man. I had a great time this last weekend over in the Tri-Cities, Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, Washington for the unlimited Hydroplane racing. And a special thanks out to my friends at six 10 K one a, one of the affiliates of Around the House through Talk Media Network.
[:[00:01:08] Eric Goranson: And what got me kind of talking about this is that I was looking at my homeowner's insurance and I'm like, you know, I've been doing a lot of work on my house, so I wanna make sure I'm covered. Because the more work I do, the more value I get. Right? So these things kind of climb up. I found out when I got ahold of Geico, who is my company I've been working with, and they're not an endorsement, they're just somebody.
[:[00:01:53] Eric Goranson: I wanted to make sure that I was covered, you know, 'cause all the time I'm adding new things to the house, fixing this up, [00:02:00] new garage door, new front door. These are all things that add up quickly and are quite frankly, pretty dang expensive if I was gonna have to go buy one. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, um, really some insurance basics here.
[:[00:02:52] Eric Goranson: Uh, burst pipe, um, all these kind of things. So, um, even aircraft sometimes can be [00:03:00] covered or usually recovered, you know, if somebody was to crash into your house, super rare again, uh, you know, in my area, volcanic eruption is a big one, but here's what you gotta be careful with is the exclusions. Many home insurance have significant gaps when it comes to natural disasters.
[:[00:03:38] Eric Goranson: Ooh, never use the flood word unless. A river has gone over banks and is coming into your house. Flood is a word that you never use when talking to your insurance company unless a river flooded and got your house, because many times a flood is not covered. But a water break is, you see where I'm [00:04:00] going here.
[:[00:04:23] Eric Goranson: So there's a, a huge tip right there that can get very expensive for you. Now, anytime that there's water damage, and I've talked about this in the past, one of the biggest things that you have to watch out for is neglect. I've seen it recently where we had some very big issues. Um, and I did, I was surprised it was covered by these folks because it seemed like there was significant neglect, but the insurance company grabbed it, which means they were good.
[:[00:05:13] Eric Goranson: Sorry about that. Well, anyway, here's the thing. Other problems that insurance won't cover if you have an Airbnb or one of those kind of things not covered. So make sure, 'cause that's a business, so make sure that you are, you know, you're sharing or home sharing. Company that you're working with is insuring your house because it's not covered usually when other people are in there.
[:[00:06:05] Eric Goranson: You know, theft of high priced items. If you have an art collection, if you have a tool collection like I do, or things like, you know, in your backyard, if you've got the trampoline, the diving board, the the water slide, be very careful with, uh, those liabilities there, because make sure you've got writers for all this stuff, you know.
[:[00:06:50] Eric Goranson: And then, you know, here's the other thing that you gotta be careful with. You know, if, if you're getting [00:07:00] crazy outside, Like you're doing YouTube tricks or stuff like that. Anything that purposely happens, or I think what they actually call a, uh, intentional loss, you're not covered. Um, many times power failures are not covered and anything considered, um, you know, if you've got a, you know, 50 year old pipes that are, that are bad because they're well outdated, they haven't been maintained, you know, you haven't been working on it.
[:[00:07:56] Eric Goranson: There's a key right there. So what is that worth? Now [00:08:00] optional coverages are, uh, are something that you should think about, you know, like we talked about earlier, flood insurance, earthquake insurance. Um, you know, any of those kind of things are big. Um, mold damage that gets to be a gray area. You know, asbestos gets to be a gray area sometimes.
[:[00:08:43] Eric Goranson: And when in doubt, if you've got a coverage issue, if you've got something that's going down in an area that you're like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be a problem. There are independent adjusters out there that you can hire. To bring on to help represent you up against the insurance company. And [00:09:00] sometimes that can be smart, especially if you've got an older house and you've got stuff that you're trying to keep it where it's restored or you're trying to keep a certain look, um, or you don't want them just to, to barely replace it.
[:[00:09:34] Eric Goranson: 'cause not everybody's gonna have a chance of a hurricane, but do you have hurricane insurance if you have a chance? You have flood insurance, you know all of these things, so just make sure that you're covered. When was the last time you followed up on this? This would be something if you don't have a regular insurance agent, if you're just jumping online like I do.
[:[00:10:08] Eric Goranson: Should we change your coverage? These are all things you should take a look at and, uh, make sure that you're covered. Alright everybody, well have a great rest of the week. This was my tip for our midweek special to make sure that you are. Dialed in and, uh, if something bad happens to your house that you are covered and it's not as big a loss.
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