Insurance Information | Southwest Michigan Realtor Blog

As a Realtor in Southwest Michigan, I find it important for homeowners to know something about homeowners insurance, particularly when it comes to inspections. Most of the time their home is inspected and they never see the inspector. The main reason is that home insurance inspections are mainly done from the exterior, and the inspector dropped by during a weekday when they were not at home.

A treehouse can be considered a hazard as there is potential risk of a child coming onto the property when you are not home and injuring themselves.

An insurance inspector is the eyes and ears for the insurance underwriter, the professional person behind your homeowners insurance policy. The inspector will take note of the distance your home is from a fire hydrant, and also the distance from the fire department. If you are home, they will ask you whether there are fire extinguishers and smoke detectors on each level of the home. They will also ask whether there are deadbolts on the exterior doors, and whether or not you have a wood burning stove.

On the exterior of a home, they are going to take a front and back photograph of the house and any out buildings. They will also photograph the roof. Among other things they are looking for are hazards. Hazards are essentially anything that can place another at risk of injury, or cause damge to the property.

Hazards can include swimming pools without a fenced, or locked gate. Also things like

Leaning buildings on the property are also considered a risk, as they could fall on someone.

treehouses, vicious dogs or even a trampoline without a protective net. They will also note hanging electrical wires, missing gutters, missing downspouts, trees overhanging the roof, and flaking paint. There could be numerous types of hazards, but these are the main ones that will draw attention to the inspector.

Other things that can get noted as a hazard is abandoned vehicles in the yard, flamable chemicals stored next to a house or structure and junk in the yard. With regards the roof they are looking for missing, curling or lifting shingles. Also moss on a roof, or missing flashing on a chimney will be noted. If the chimney is missing tuck pointing, or is leaning, it will also be noted.

All of these things can have a negative impact on your premium, and in some cases may even result in being denied for coverage. That all depends on the insurance carrier that is writing the policy, and thus one can see that having hazards on a property can limit the field for you in terms of shopping for a policy. So if you want to reduce your costs, consider addressing these things if they exist in your home, and talk to your insurance agent.

Article From Houselogic.com

By: Mariwyn Evans

Published: August 28, 2009

Your CLUE insurance report keeps your homeowners insurance claims alive for seven years–and that could cost you on your premiums.

A tree falls on the roof of your house. You file an insurance claim with your agent, collect a settlement from the insurer, and fix your roof. End of story, right? Not quite. Every claim you make on your homeowners insurance is recorded in a widely used insurance industry database called CLUE, short for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange.
Almost all insurance companies use CLUE to check on the claims history of prospective policyholders. The CLUE insurance report also includes claims made on your home before you even bought it. A-PLUS is another company that maintains a loss-history database. What’s inside these reports can affect your insurance premiums, or even prevent you from getting coverage.

YOUR CLAIMS HISTORY LIVES ON IN CLUE

The CLUE Personal Property report, which pertains to homeowners insurance, is divided into two parts: your personal record of claims (“Claims for the Subject”) and the claims on your home (“Claims History for Risk”). The number of claims in either section will affect whether you can get insurance for your home, how much coverage you can get, and how much you’ll pay in premiums. If you’re turned down for homeowners insurance because of information in your CLUE report, your insurance company is required to let you know why you were rejected.
Since the database is used by most insurance companies, your claims history follows you from one insurer to another. Actual claims, as opposed to inquiries, remain in the CLUE database for seven years from the date you filed them. Both ChoicePoint, the owner of CLUE, and A-PLUS advise insurance carriers not to report loss information just because you called to ask a question about whether your policy will cover a particular loss. Individual insurance companies may keep a record of inquires, though.

HOW INSURERS USE CLUE

Insurance companies rely on CLUE reports because statistics show that if you’ve filed a claim in the past, you’re more likely to file one in the future, says Dick Luedke, a spokesperson for State Farm Insurance. The amount of a claim is less important than how often you’ve filed, he says. “We aren’t trying to make up for past losses, but to predict the risk of future claims.”
Each insurance company has its own formula for calculating how much a claim will affect your premium, according to the Insurance Information Institute(http://www.iii.org/), a trade group that provides information to consumers. Suffice it to say the fewer the claims the less you’ll likely be charged. State Farm gives a 5% discount if you haven’t filed a claim in the last five years, says Luedke. That’s $40 off an average annual premium(http://www.iii.org/media/facts/statsbyissue/homeowners/) of $804. Ask your agent if a claim-free discount is available.

CLAIMS AREN’T ALL THAT COUNT

Knowing what’s on your CLUE report will give you a sense of whether you’ll need to pay extra for homeowners insurance, or even if you run the risk of rejection. Unfortunately, even a pristine report doesn’t mean you can be sure of getting homeowners insurance at a great price. That’s because the claims on your CLUE report aren’t the only things that affect your overall insurance risk.
Insurance companies also consider your credit score, which is based on such things as how much debt you carry, whether you pay your bills on time, and so forth. According to the Insurance Information Institute, studies show that how people manage their finances is a good indicator of whether they’ll file an insurance claim. The more likely you are to file a claim, the bigger risk you are to the insurance company. And more risk means a higher premium or denial of coverage. Other factors insurers consider include the location of your home and its type of construction.

HOW TO REVIEW YOUR CLUE REPORT

If you do decide to check you CLUE Personal Property report, it’s a relatively easy process. Under federal law, you get one free CLUE report a year. You can contact ChoicePoint by telephone at 800-456-6004. You can also register online(http://WWW.CHOICETRUST.COM) to gain access to an electronic copy of your report for 30 days. Request a form to receive a Property Loss report from A-PLUS by calling 800-709-8842. There’s a charge of $9 to have the report mailed to you, according to the company’s website.
Your CLUE report will have:
* Your name, home address, birth date, and Social Security number;
* The number assigned to the report;
* The name of your insurance company;
* The type and number of the insurance policy;
* The type of loss-fire, water, etc.-for each claim and the claim number;
* The date of the loss and the amount of each claim;
* The status of each claim: closed, pending, etc.
The report also tells you how to dispute any errors(http://www.houselogic.com/articles/how-to-correct-your-clue-insurance-report/) you find. Because risk calculations vary by insurance company, it’s impossible to say exactly how a claim on your CLUE report will affect your premium. That makes it tough to decide just how much value checking your CLUE yields. Still, taking less than an hour once a year to order and review your report could pay off, especially if you find an error.
Mariwyn Evans has spent 25 years writing about commercial and residential real estate. She’s the author of several books, including “Opportunities in Real Estate Careers,” as well as too many magazine articles to count.