In order to navigate the world of insurance, you really need to do your homework in order to find coverage that is suitable for your situation while maintaining your budget. This is especially true when looking for CT homeowners insurance coverage, because this is the one coverage that, if not researched correctly, can lead to headaches down the road if a loss were to occur.
But don’t worry! We don’t mean to scare you; we just want to educate you so that it doesn’t happen to you. The following bullets are some mistakes that people make when it comes to their CT homeowners insurance.
Mistake 1: Setting your home’s insurance coverage based off of the real estate value. Remember, this is a market value of your property, not the cost of the property. You need to ensure that your policy covers you for the cost to rebuild your home, because that cost won’t really change, whereas property value (as we know from the past few years) can fluctuate significantly.
Mistake 2: Skipping out on extra coverage. This is another mistake that too many people make because they live by the motto: “it won’t happen to me.” Well, while that very well may be the case, you can’t have that luck forever. Did the people of NewJersey, New York, and southern Connecticut think their homes would be literally washed away from a super storm in late October? Yeah, probably not. Remember, policies like flood coverage are extra and not included in standard CT homeowners insurance coverage. So choosing not to have a policy such as this is not a smart move whatsoever.
Mistake 3: Eliminating flood coverage if you previously had it. Now as we previously just said, damage from a natural disaster like a hurricane will often come from flooding, and if you don’t have additional flood coverage, then that damage bill will hit your wallet as opposed to being covered by your insurance coverage. Always make sure that you’re 100% aware of what your CT homeowners insurance covers, and what it doesn’t cover also.
Mistake 4: Just looking at policy sticker price. Sure, we all enjoy getting a great deal, but in the world of insurance, the saying “you get what you pay for”could never be truer. Simply going with the cheapest policy available may save you money now, but come an event that causes significant damage to your home,the harsh reality of your cheap policy will be evident.
Now if you are someone looking to invest in a new CT homeowners insurance policy, then make sure to avoid these aforementioned mistakes. One more thing also, make sure that your policy covers your belongings for their replacement cost as opposed to their actual cash value. What’s this mean?Well, with replacement cost, your insurer will provide you with the money to purchase new items that may have been lost in the claim, but actual cash value takes depreciation into account. Basically this means that your insurer will only give you money for the damaged belongings at their current value, so if your fridge cost you $1000 a few years ago, but is now valued at $400, then you’d only receive $400 from your coverage- far less then you need to replace that fridge.