Factors to Consider Before Getting Building Insurance
Before you invest in an insurance policy to cover both your business and the valuable items contained inside, there are a few important factors to consider. While all building insurance policies operate in largely the same way, there are a few customizations you can make to have one better suit your needs. When considering a policy to purchase, finding out what it doesn’t cover is just as important as finding out what it does. Nobody wants to think about what it would be like to lose his or her entire business due to a disaster like a fire. Doing so is an important step in being proactive and making sure that you will be covered in the event that something unfortunate does occur.
Before selecting a policy, it is important to think about what types of optional coverage you may need. Most building insurance policies don’t include provisions for flood damage, for example. Remember that just because flooding may be unlikely in your area doesn’t guarantee it won’t occur. An event doesn’t have to be a traditional flood (which would involve the swelling of a nearby body of water and the damage that occurred as a result) to be deemed flood-related damage by an insurance provider. If your area experienced heavy rains and the sewer drains around your business backed up, for example, water could leak into an underground level of your business or come up through the pipes and damage valuable items and equipment. Though you may not consider that type of event to be a traditional flood, your insurance company would and would also use it as a basis to deny your claim in the event that you didn’t have optional coverage.
If you’re worried about how much money building insurance is going to cost, consider investing and making repairs to try to lower some of the costs. Building insurance providers charge premiums based on two different factors. The first is how likely an event is to occur and what type of damage will occur as a result. If you live in an area with a high crime rate, for example, a common type of building damage in your area would be burglary or larceny. As a result, you would pay more for those types of coverage than someone in another area would because there is a statistically higher chance of them happening where your business is located. However, you can combat some of these rising costs by taking steps to make your building safer. If you live in such a high crime area, consider installing security cameras that link to a third party location or the local authorities. You can make the same types of preventative modifications for other types of disasters, too. If you install a sprinkler system or a fire alarm system on your property, for example, your building will be deemed safer and you will pay less for fire-related coverage.
Another factor to consider are the types of optional coverage that you should invest in based on the type of building you operate. If you own an apartment complex, for example, you will need a policy that offers a certain amount of liability coverage. Find out how much liability coverage an average tenant needs in your area and multiply that dollar amount by the total amount of tenants you have. If you own a retail business, add up the value of the inventory that you keep on hand on an average day and use it to adjust your policy limits for those types of damages. Finding out which types of optional coverage you should invest in will help make sure you get not only a financially attractive policy but one that will cover you in the event that something unexpected happens, as well.
The Funniest Insurance Claims Ever Filed
Who says insurance agents don’t have a sense of humor? They’d have to, to sit back and read some of the insurance claims that drivers and homeowners file today without becoming raving lunatics! Here is a collection of the funniest, most ludicrous and most outrageous insurance claims to ever pass across the desk of an insurance claims director, as told by comedian Jasper Carrott, website www.businessballs.com and the Charlotte evening news.
1)A Charlotte lawyer purchased a box of costly cigars and insured them against flood, storm damage and, of all things, fire. Needless to say, his investment went up in (happily inhaled) smoke within a month, after which the lawyer filed a claim with his homeowners insurance company that he was owed compensation because “the cigars were lost in a series of small fires”. The insurer refused to pay, assuming (correctly) that the man had smoked the pack himself. A judge ruled, however, that since the insurer had never stated what was considered to be “unacceptable” fire the company did, in fact, owe him $15,000 to replace his property.
The insurance company paid the claim, but they got their own back in the end. The lawyer was then arrested, sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine for 24 counts of arson and insurance fraud.
2)True story: When asked to describe how he had come to have a one on one with a lamppost the driver stated that he had not been able to see the post because “it was obscured by human beings.”
3)Only in Louisiana could you get away with filing an insurance claim stating, “Windshield broke. Cause unknown. Probably voodoo.”
4)It’s all H2O to me. A judge had to educate a homeowners insurance provider on the fundamentals of chemistry when a washing machine got stuck on boil and steam cleaned an entire kitchen beyond repair. The insurance company tried to claim that steam damage shouldn’t be covered under the homeowners water damage policy.
5)A woman meeting her husband, a Navy crewman who was due into port that day, parked at the end of the slip where the submarine was due in to berth. There was an inexperienced ensign at the helm who overshot his landing and hit the end of the slip, breaking a section away and sending the car plunging into the water. Needless to say, those damages were on Uncle Sam!
6)There may not have been a tornado in town, but a driver unfortunate enough to have picked that day to park his car by the side of the road was treated to a moment in Oz when a house came crashing down off the flatbed of the truck hired to move it, completely destroying his vehicle.
7)Will these pedestrians never learn? A driver stated on his insurance claim form that “I knocked over a man. He admitted it was his fault, as he’d been knocked over before!” Another driver quite practically pointed out, “The pedestrian had no idea which direction to run, so I ran over him.”
8)In a nod to punctuality, a driver was rushing out of his drive on his way to work at seven o’clock in the morning and ran straight into a bus-who was five minutes early.
[Top]Five Crazy But Common Car Insurance Exclusions
Five Crazy But Common Car Insurance Exclusions
You buy your car insurance, you glance at the policy documents, and you assume you’re covered for all eventualities where your car is stolen or damaged. Think again.
Read through your policy documents in detail. Some insurers don’t cover injuries to passengers aged over 75. Others won’t pay out if your car is stolen by someone who deceives you into handing over your keys. A small number won’t cover damage to your car that’s caused in a road rage incident. It’s common industry practice not to provide gap insurance, so if your car is written off or stolen, you won’t receive the full amount you paid when you bought your car.
Every car insurance policy includes some exclusions. Many of the exclusions would be extremely frustrating if they happened to you, and you then discovered that you’re not covered by your insurance firm. Some of them are downright crazy. Five of the most crazy but common car insurance exclusions are:
1. Nuclear Fallout
If Britain was wiped out by a nuclear bomb and you managed to survive, you wouldn’t receive a pay out from your insurer for the damage caused to your car. This is not only because the insurance firm will probably have been destroyed in the blast; it’s because it’s standard practice for motor insurance policies to exclude damage caused by nuclear fallout.
The same applies if your local nuclear power plant explodes and destroys your car, or if your car is contaminated by radioactive waste: you will not be compensated for the damage caused.
Currently this exclusion applies to policies bought from almost all the major motor insurance firms, including Admiral, Direct Line, Aviva, Churchill, Saga, Prudential, Sheila’s Wheels, and Co-operative Insurance to name a few.
2. UFOs
Most car insurance firms will not pay out if your car is damaged by pressure waves from aircraft travelling at or beyond the speed of sound. This includes damage caused by sonic and supersonic UFOs from outer space.
If you are zapped by an alien laser-beam while driving on the motorway, your insurance firm is unlikely to cover your injuries or the damage to your car. This is because such aggression would be considered an act of war. Car insurance firms usually exclude cover for damage caused by war, civil war, acts of a foreign enemy, or revolution.
Currently this exclusion applies to policies bought from almost all major car insurance firms, including Direct Line, Aviva, Admiral, Churchill, Saga, Prudential, Sheila’s Wheels, and LV=.
3. Car Stolen by Jealous Husband or Wife
Motor insurers will not provide cover if your car is taken without your permission by any member of your household or family. This includes your spouse or partner, your children, your parents or a lodger in your home. The only exception to this rule is if you report your car as stolen to the police, and prosecute the person who took your car in court.
Currently this exclusion applies to policies bought from almost all major motor insurance firms, including Direct Line, Admiral, Co-operative Insurance, Sheila’s Wheels, and LV=.
4. Earthquakes
Fortunately for us Brits, the UK is not prone to earthquakes or tremors. However, were the worst to happen and the ground opened up and swallowed your car, or even if a less violent earthquake shattered your windscreen, it’s probable that your insurer would refuse to pay out.
A small but significant number of car insurance firms do not cover for damage caused by earthquakes. Admiral is the most notable insurer with this exception. Other insurers who refuse cover for earthquakes include Saga, Prudential, and Sheila’s Wheels.
As well as looking out for earthquakes, remember to check your insurance policy documents for the phrase “acts of God”. Sheila’s Wheels breakdown service, for example, cannot be held liable if they leave you stranded by the roadside because of an “act of God”.
5. Blind Drivers
Unsurprisingly, there is not a single insurance firm who will provide cover for drivers who can’t see. This is never stated explicitly in insurance policy documents, but insurance companies cover their backs by saying they won’t pay out for claims resulting from damage caused by “unlicensed drivers”.
Being unable to get insurance or a licence wasn’t enough to stop one blind person from getting behind the steering wheel. In 2006, 31-year-old Omed Aziz was banned from driving for three years and given a suspended jail sentence after police caught him driving on the wrong side of the road.
This exclusion seems to apply to policies bought from almost all motor insurance firms.
How do you make sure you’ve got the best possible insurance cover for your car? Firstly, don’t just choose a policy based on price. Research what’s covered and what’s excluded by each company you’re considering. Secondly, if the level of cover you want isn’t available from standard car insurance firms, consider taking out extra insurance, such as gap insurance, from a specialist insurer.
Car insurance exclusions are usually not that hard to find, you just need to have a look at the rarely-read policy documents.
To be sure you’re not hit by a nasty surprise when you need to make a claim, make some time to read through policy documents when choosing your car insurance. Most insurance firms make their policy documents available online as a free download.
[Top]Comprehensive and Collision Insurances
If there is something important to discuss about cars, it usually has something to do with insurance. Although some of us may consider it unnecessary, insurance is something you should never forget about. Comprehensive and collision insurances are two of the types of insurance that both offer room for savings during unfortunate car incidents.
Although one of them is not really required, drivers usually purchase both types of insurance to protect their vehicles from a wider range of situations. Comprehensive auto insurance is suggested to all drivers for situations which are not covered by collision insurance. If your car is old and potentially has a low resale value, you can probably get by without comprehensive insurance. Needless to say, any car owner cannot possibly drive a car without any insurance at all.
Getting a comprehensive insurance policy is more strictly enforced in many states compared with collision insurance. When procuring a car loan, it would be wise to consider collision and comprehensive auto insurance packages. In the unfortunate event that the car is damaged, the insurance policies should cover the repair fees. These insurance policies help protect the lending institution from fraud or abuse. Lenders require borrowers to have these insurance policies for their loan to get approved.
Of all the types of comprehensive insurance, comprehensive auto insurance offered by Dodge Edmonton dealerships is the most common. It can cover everything except collision damages. Collision insurance, on the other hand, is intended to cover multiple collisions and collision with uninsured motorists. Such insurance also includes services such as towing, storage, and salvage if the car has been badly damaged from the accident.
The standard amount of deductibles in comprehensive and collision insurance packages offered by Dodge Edmonton dealerships is $500. The insured party always requests to increase or decrease the deductibles in a case to case basis. Take note that the higher the deductible is, the lower the comprehensive insurance premium will be required.
When applying for comprehensive and collision insurance, you have to provide several pieces of information such as driver’s age, yearly mileage, area in which the car is driven, and initial value of the car. Always check the insurance policy’s fine print before signing it. You can always visit any Dodge Edmonton dealership to discuss which of the two insurance is best for your car.
[Top]Getting Cost- Effective Auto Insurance in Los Angeles
Summary: California residents are known to pay some of the biggest rates when it comes to auto insurance in United States. Henceforth, all those who reside in Los Angeles are no exception.
California residents are known to pay some of the biggest rates when it comes to auto insurance in United States. Henceforth, all those who reside in Los Angeles are no exception. We all have a goal to keep the insurance rates as low as possible and thus you would have to access the level of coverage, just to make sure that you do not end up being over-insured. The next step after this important assessment would be to compare auto insurance rates from different companies in Los Angeles in order to pick the best rates for you.
Los Angeles is believed to have one of the highest accident ratios in United States and ironically also has the biggest percentage of uninsured drivers. Therefore, it would be mandatory to acquire auto insurance in Los Angeles.
Every state sets a minimum level of auto insurance coverage for all the drivers and thence it becomes extremely important to study the state laws before getting yourself insured. A lot of companies provide you with more auto coverage then you actually need. So it is essential to know your state laws and requirements before applying for quotes from various auto insurance companies in Los Angeles.
People buy all kinds of insurance with the intention of protecting their assets and in cases if you do not own a lot then getting the minimum level of coverage required by the law would be sufficient. On the other hand, if you own a home or land or any other property then it would be highly proactive to take necessary steps to protect these assets from any legal action in you are involved in an accident at any given time.
There are a few ways which can help you keep your Los Angeles auto insurance down. One of them is if you own an older vehicle that has been reduced in value; you could easily cancel your collision insurance. What happens in this case is that such coverage pays only for the damage of your vehicles, regardless of whose fault it was. Here, if your car is fully paid for then you may perhaps be better off by buying a new vehicle all together if your car is severely damaged.
If you happen to be in a situation where you are paying loan payments on your car, a lot of these lenders in the Los Angeles auto insurance market would want to ensure that your collision insurance is bought so that they get paid too if there is any loss.
However, once your vehicle is paid in full and you continue to pay the same amount of premium for auto insurance with less coverage, the insurance company will pay for the repairs after the accident up to the value of your vehicle at the time of the accident. This amount will be higher then what you originally bought the vehicle for. To conclude with, there are loads of strategies that can help you acquire cheaper rates in a Los Angeles auto insurance market. All you need to know is your state laws and research the quotes accordingly.
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