Sheri’s and my home insurance renews in March. Over the past few weeks, we’ve received a number of offer letters from insurance agents with a variety of companies. All of them offer what appears to be huge savings. If I were not an insurance agent, I would be very interested, however, I am an insurance agent and I know what I’m looking at when I read these offer letters. The savings they promise really is too good to be true!
How do car insurance companies handle claims when one of their clients are struck by a driver who doesn’t have car insurance? Most people never think about this, but I see it several times a year as the Dallas / Fort Worth area has historically had the highest percentage of drivers without car insurance, or uninsured motorists, in Texas. The only time most people think about this after they’ve been hit by an uninsured driver.
Over the past five weeks, I’ve written about home insurance topics related to the tornadoes that hit north Texas on December 26th including picking the right roofer or contractor, claim steps, important coverage in the event of a total loss, how claims are paid and why a home inventory is invaluable after a major claim. I felt it appropriate to end this series with a look at two things home insurance covers which are factored into the home’s dwelling value that most homeowners don’t think about, demolition and debris removal.
House Bill 2305 was passed by the Texas Legislation on June 14, 2013 and went into effect on March 1, 2015. The bill did away with the familiar inspection sticker most Texas drivers were accustomed to receiving when we had our cars and trucks inspected each year. The goal, starting March 1st of last year was to combine the inspection sticker with our vehicle registration sticker.
I had an interesting question last week from a prospective client. I was explaining personal property coverage on the home insurance quote I’d prepared for them when they asked, “If my house burned down, the insurance company will write me a check for $X to replace all my personal property?”
Is car insurance more expensive or less expensive for smaller car as compared to larger cars? This would seem to be an easy question to answer; the bigger the car, the more expensive it is. Therefore it must cost more to insure larger cars than smaller ones, right?!
Do you have enough coverage in your home insurance policy to cover a total loss? Do you have the right coverage? The answer to these two questions may never be known until you experience a situation like over 100 homeowners did after Christmas when tornadoes rumbled through Red Oak, Garland, and Rowlett. Over 1,200 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed by 11 tornadoes which ransacked parts of north Texas on December 26th.
Changing our calendars to a fresh new year can cause us to reflect on what has transpired over the past twelve months. Many who do that resolve to initiate changes and renew a commitment or promise to themselves to do some things different. Along with people filling up the local gyms with a regenerated desire to get their bodies in shape, many take a look at their finances to consider ways they can improve their financial bottom line.
Sheri and I headed to join friends over the New Year’s holiday after checking in with all our clients located in and around where the tornadoes struck Garland, Rowlett, and the surrounding areas last week. We drove out I-30 toward where the twister struck near where the George Bush tollway and I-30 intersect. The damage sustained by the apartment buildings on the south side of the freeway was incredible; starting with rubble and progressing along the buildings to lost roofs and major damage.
This past Saturday was a warm day, shorts and t-shirt weather for most of the day. The weather report called for a cool front to move in that afternoon and evening. It did and the collision of the cool front with the warm air moving up from the Gulf set off a chain of thunderstorms and up to 9 reported tornadoes that ranged from Waxahachie, through Garland, Rowlett, and past Lake Lavon in Collin County. The extent of damage wasn’t known until Sunday.
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