There are many different reasons that may be the problem or what’s going on with you and I’m going to help you to understand that some of those things are things you can fix, but some of them, it’s going to take a little bit of time. So what are some of those different things that may disqualify your application for home insurance?
Avoid These Mistakes When Buying Home Insurance
When buying home insurance, you want it to serve its purpose and that’s to protect you, your family, and your assets. This video will guide you on how to avoid making mistakes when you buy your homeowners insurance.
Having a bad credit score
Your credit score is one of the things that insurance companies use to determine whether you are a good risk or not, I realized that they may have nothing to do with it at all for you. However, statistically, it has been proven that people with better credit, are less likely to work claims and also are more likely to take care of their property and do proper maintenance. Typically, they’ll give a better rate to people who have a much higher credit score, such as 700 or even 800, a much lower one that may be in the 500, and then if you are much lower than that they may decline. I understand it may have nothing to you but statistically, it’s been proven and insurance companies are all about statistics.
Having a criminal record
Having a criminal record actually may disqualify you for that, not as much these days, but it still may disqualify you, more likely auto insurance may disqualify you because of having too many violations, accidents, or something like that. But from home insurance, it may or may not.
Lapsing coverage
Lapsing coverage, a lot of insurance companies will not pick you up if you’ve had a lapse in coverage because it shows that you’re not responsible, or they’re not able to go back and look at claims history on you.
Your claims history
Another thing is going to be your claims history in general, insurance companies are going to look if you have been having a lot of claims now, weather-related claims aren’t so much of a problem. The problem is things such as water damage, or things that you’ve done, like maybe a fire somewhere that maybe had a grease fire on the stove, or theft. Because they think those are potentially avoidable, you may think, how in the world can you avoid theft? Well, if you just leave things out all the time, that is in public, it’s attracting a nuisance that could potentially someone to be more likely to come and steal it because it’s visible, and get it quickly. So just be aware, claim activity will affect your insurance.
Maintenance of your home
The other thing is going to be just the maintenance of your house if your roof is too old, or also maybe needs some painting or something like that. If you’re not taking proper maintenance with it, they may not give you coverage, and they may decline you. There are lots of areas in that, especially coastal, where insurance companies are not going to take your insurance unless your roof is 10 years or newer or even five years or newer, or they may significantly limit the coverage on your roof.
Attractive nuisances or hazardous features
Another thing is hazardous features like swimming pools, diving boards, trampolines, things like that, or animals or too many acres. Insurance companies may or may not give you coverage for that or may charge you more also, different types of dogs that you may have may cause you to either be limited on that coverage exclusion on the coverage, or just they won’t write to you at all.
Some other things are going to be just as the age of the home or substandard quality, you know there’s a lot of different things that may go into that. If you’re having a hard time finding insurance for your home, maybe check with an independent insurance agent, most of us have a lot of different insurance companies where we may be able to help you with that.
Understand, depending on your home and your needs, you may pay a little bit more for coverage with a substandard carrier versus a regular. Now as an independent agent, as we are, we represent a lot of companies that will write anything and just understand that depending on what it is, the coverages are going to change a lot, and then also the premium is going to change a lot. That’s why it’s best to work with an independent agent like us.
Find out what is different about us today:
Text or call: 318-336-5202
Email reed@reedinsla.com
You can meet our team HERE
You can start a quote HERE
We’ll be glad to take a look at your insurance coverage in any of the states of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
Thank you,
Beaux Pilgrim, CEO
Beaux Pilgrim
Reed Insurance