Home Insurance Brokers: directory of firms

Replacement cost coverage pays to repair or replace the house and personal property at current prices. Actual cash value pays replacement cost minus depreciation. On the dwelling itself that distinction is usually settled by the form you buy. On the roof it may be settled by an endorsement you did not notice, since a number of carriers now apply actual cash value to roofs above a certain age even when the rest of the dwelling is on replacement cost.

Contents work the same way. A ten-year-old sofa insured at actual cash value pays out what a ten-year-old sofa is worth, which will not furnish a living room. Ask your broker three questions in writing: is the dwelling on replacement cost, is the roof treated differently, and are contents replacement cost or actual cash value. The answers cost nothing to obtain and decide a great deal later.

Standard homeowners policies exclude flooding and earthquakes or earth movement, along with continuous water leaks, and they will not pay for mould removal except to repair damage caused by a covered risk. Most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage at all, which is why the National Flood Insurance Program exists as a separate purchase, with building coverage available up to 250,000 US dollars and contents up to 100,000 for a residential policy.

Flood coverage also has a waiting period: typically 30 days from the date of purchase before the policy takes effect, so buying as a storm approaches does not work. Earthquake is likewise separate. In California, insurers writing homeowners coverage must offer earthquake insurance and must repeat that offer every other year, in writing, with a period in which to accept it. Deductibles on earthquake policies are percentages of the insured value, not flat amounts.

Underwriting in much of the country now turns on the roof. Carriers ask its age and material, they look at aerial imagery, and in storm-exposed states they may decline or non-renew over it. Keep the replacement invoice and the permit; a documented recent roof is one of the few things that reliably improves both your eligibility and your rate.

The rest is unglamorous and matters. Old wiring, a federal pacific panel, polybutylene plumbing, an oil tank, a wood stove without documentation, a trampoline or an unfenced pool can each move you out of the standard market. Carriers also treat frequency badly: two small claims in three years can cost you more at renewal than the claims paid you. Fix the small water leak yourself and save the policy for the loss you cannot absorb.

Report promptly, prevent further damage, and document everything before anything is cleaned up: photographs, video, a written inventory, receipts where you have them. An adjuster inspects and prepares an estimate. Where the loss is on replacement cost, carriers commonly pay the depreciated amount first and release the remainder once the repair is actually done and invoiced, which catches people out when they plan to keep the cheque.

An independent broker is not your adjuster, but they can chase the file, explain which endorsement applies, and escalate inside the carrier when nothing moves. Ask yours to put the coverage position in writing. If the denial stands and you disagree with it, the complaint route runs through your state department of insurance.

Carriers stop writing and stop increasing coverage when a named storm enters a defined box, or when a wildfire is burning within a set distance. These moratoriums are announced at short notice and they apply to changes on existing policies as well as new business. The practical result is that the week you most want to fix your coverage is the week you cannot.

Plan around it. Review limits in the quiet part of the year, buy flood early because of the waiting period, and if you are closing on a house in hurricane season, get the binder in place before the forecast rather than after. Keep an inventory with photographs stored somewhere off the property, and keep the policy declarations where you can reach them from a phone.