North Carolina homeowners policies have long been a thorn in the side of insurance companies doing business in our state.  On the one hand, they subject the insurance company to the misery of catastrophic losses like tornadoes and hurricanes and they also risk generating large assessments to force the insurance companies to help pay for the underfunded beach plan that covers all those wonderful beach houses we have on our coast.  On the other hand, if the insurance company can’t sell you a homeowners policy, then they are not likely to be successful selling an auto insurance policy to you as well.  And for the past decade or so, personal auto insurance has been the big money maker in North Carolina.

Now a new stopgap solution is rearing its ugly head and bearing its face to NC homeowners insurance buyers.  It comes in the form of a minimum deductible requirement.  The idea started slowly, several years ago by a few companies that wanted to cull down their homeowners presence in certain higher risk portions of the state.  They began with wind and hail deductibles that were based on a percentage of the total loss.  So, if you have a 2% deductible and a $100,000 loss, then your total deductible will be $2000.   In some cases these percentages reached as high as 15%.

Recently the rumor mill indicates that one of the largest homeowner writing insurance companies in NC is considering implementing a minimum $1000 deductible on all of its policies, both new policies and renewal policies.  Of course this drastic policy change will come with an attached notice of some sort, to let the homeowner know of this change.  But the sad reality is that very few homeowners will take the time to read the notice and as such will not be aware of this new higher deductible until after they file a claim.  Then the surprise will really hurt.

What can you do about it?  Well, be sure to check your renewal policies very carefully and watch for this change.  If you find that your insurance company has forced a higher deductible on you, and if you don’t want that high of a deductible, then call your agent and see if there is another option.  We represent dozens of companies and so far, none of ours are implementing these new, higher minimum deductibles except for a few exceptions in coastal counties.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, we help homeowners every day, all across our great state of North Carolina with their home and auto insurance needs.  If you find yourself forced to swallow a new $1000 deductible and you don’t want one that high, please give us a call.  Our agents will take as much time as you need to go over your home insurance in detail and help you make sure that you get the policy you want at the best possible price.  Give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

Landlords come in so many types, from the accidental landlord, stuck with a property he can’t sell and must rent, all the way to the professional landlord who owns many houses.  In each case, the most obvious insurance decision that the landlord has to consider is the insurance for the structure itself, often called Dwelling Fire Insurance.  Losing the dwelling to a catastrophic loss presents a fairly easy formula in terms of what the landlord has to lose.  The value of the house itself is usually pretty easily measured and understood.  But there is another danger out there for the landlord, and missing this detail can present a large and unknown loss, one that could take away your other assets much beyond the value of the rental house itself.

What I’m referring to here is the liability exposure that comes from owning and renting a dwelling to others.  In North Carolina, most dwelling fire insurance policies, which cover the house itself and sometime the landlords personal possessions inside, often do not have a mechanism for protecting the landlord from liability exposures related to owning and renting the house.  So how do you protect against this exposure?

If you are a landlord with just a few policies, the easiest approach is to use your homeowners insurance policy to extend the liability from your homeowners insurance to your rental property.   Most homeowners policies will allow this up to some total limit of locations, usually no more than 4.  This strategy is a good one if you have an umbrella policy as well since this will extend the liability protection for your rental house directly to the umbrella policy, thus giving you much higher limits of coverage. 

Another approach is to find an insurance company that will allow you to add liability to the dwelling fire policy form.  Not every company can or will do this, but  if you look hard enough, you should be able to find a company that can do this for you.  Typically this will cost more than adding the protection through your home insurance but prices do vary so perhaps you should check both.  If you add the liability protection to your dwelling fire insurance policy, then you should be sure to remember to add the dwelling policy to your list of underlying policies on your umbrella policy if you have one.  This approach may also be more expensive on the umbrella policy, or it may make no difference at all to the costs.

For landlords with many locations to insure, usually the best approach is to purchase a general liability insurance policy to list all the locations on one policy. 

When setting up the liability insurance for your rent house, be sure to carefully consider the amount of liability protection you want to buy.  It is relatively cheap to  move to higher and higher limits so purchase the most insurance that you can afford.  Remember, you are insuring a large, unknown loss here.  There is no way of knowing how high the loss could go and ultimately this means you are trying to protect everything that you own, so don’t scrimp on limits here.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in beautiful Winston Salem, NC, we want all of our clients to be informed insurance buyers.  We want you to have the information that you need to make wise, and informed decisions about protecting your assets from loss.  If we can help you with insuring your rental property in North Carolina, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.