Halloween Parties And Your Home Insurance

October 3, 2011 by Leave a comment

Halloween is one of the most favorite times of year.  All kinds of events happen on this day, including Halloween Parties.  You will have your friend John dressing up like a giant banana and Suzie dressing up like Little Red Riding Hood.  Some people are going to have Halloween Parties this year.  Here are some things to think about before you host your Halloween Party at your home.

  • Make sure before hosting a party that you have a clear path from the street to your door.  Make sure there are no potential tripping hazards or delinquencies that could cause a slip and fall.  If you have snow on Halloween shovel your driveways, walkways and lay down salt in order to melt ice.
  • Make sure to confine your pets not only because people can trip and fall over them but you don’t want your pet to run away or get hurt.
  • Make sure all areas where people are going to be walking including dining room, living rooms, sidewalks, bathrooms and dens are well lit so people have a clear view of where they are walking.
  • Do not use open flames.  Even though this is a party killer, do not light candles because people have the tendency to knock them over and start a fire.  Use the electrical lights for your candles and your jack-o-lanterns.
  • If you are serving food, make sure that perishables don’t sit out too long.  You do not want your guests to get sick from food you serve.
  • If you are planning to serve alcohol, make sure you don’t serve your guests too much, and make sure they have a way home.  This can be a Taxi Cab or assign a designated driver.
  • Test all safety devices including fire alarms if applicable, test smoke detectors, and make sure your fire extinguisher is up to date.

In conclusion, a renter, a homeowner and a landlord can be potentially held liable for any incidents or accidents that occur on a property.  Make sure your homeowners, renters or landlord policy has enough medical payments liability coverage and premises liability coverage.  We recommend at least $5,000 Medical Payments and $300,000 liability coverage on homeowners. Also make sure that you homeowners doesn’t have an exclusion for liquor being served.  If you have any questions or would like a quote, please feel free to contact us.

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The Liability Of Halloween Trick Or Treaters On Your Property

October 3, 2011 by Leave a comment

Halloween can be a great and fun time of the year. Those little pumpkins come to the door and say “Trick or Treat” and you give them all kinds of candy. Many Moms and Dads walk along with their children in gathering those little treats, and even sometimes grandmas and grandpas. As We all know they come on your property, ring your door bell and you give out goodies. The unforeseen threat is when the “trick or treaters” come  on your property, you could potentially be held liable for anything that could happen. This is if someone slips o falls, or any other type of “accident”. This could be if you are  a renter, homeowner or landlord. There are a couple of ways to prevent and protect yourself and we are going to explain what to do.

What To Do To Your Property To Prepare For Trick Or Treaters

  • Make sure there is a clear path from the street to your door. Make sure there is enough space for people to walk.
  • Have the area’s well-lit with light. This is so people can see clearly where they are walking on your property.
  • If its snows, shovel your driveway and walkways, and lay down salt. This is to prevent slip and falls.
  • Don’t have any hazards in the way or attractive nuisance’s.  This could be a hole you are digging in your lawn, or a pile of lumber or rocks in your yard.

Check Your Home Insurance Policy

Make sure your homeowners or renters policy has enough liability and medical coverage. We at least recommend having $5,000 in Medical Payments Coverage and having at least a $300,000 liability. Increasing these coverages will at most cost you an extra $50 dollars per year.  If someone sues you or there is a monetary judgement held against you due to an incident, your home insurance policy protects you.

If you take these basic steps it will assure a lot safer Halloween for you as a homeowner, and for your trick or treaters. Happy Halloween. If you have any questions or would like a quote, please contact us. Thanks for reading!

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TAKE IT TO THE TOP

September 6, 2011 by Leave a comment

In today’s economy, we all need to “take it to the top”.  In the insurance business this could mean to insure all of your valuables in a well-written and comprehensive policy.  If you have valuable furs, precious jewels, diamonds, coins, or valuable stones, they need to be insured for market value or stated value.

As the insured, you should have endorsements and individual floaters to cover all of your valuables.  Don’t be afraid to “take it to the top” in adding coverage, even if it means increasing your premium.  You will be money ahead.  Let your insurance agent assist you in developing a policy that provides the right coverage for you.

Allow your insurance agent “take it to the top” in giving you the service and insurance you deserve.  We at Denvers Insurance do just that.  Let us give you a quote that will be reasonable and yet allow the proper coverage. 

Karen W. Schneider

Denvers Insurance LLC and the Ahbe Group

2833 South Colorado Blvd.

Denver, Colorado  80222

(303) 219-4985

 

 

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Understanding An Indirect Loss On An Insurance Policy

June 22, 2011 by Leave a comment

When a loss occurs, and a claim is filed, the is more underneath the problem than first understood. That loss could be a pipe breaking in your house, a fire in the kitchen or any other type of occurrence. During this time all that is on the policyholders mind, is the loss at hand. But there is another loss creeping up on them, most of the time realizing it at the last second.  This is known as an indirect loss.

What is an indirect loss?

An indirect loss is a loss that occurs because of another loss.  It is an underlying loss that takes place because of a larger loss.   On a homeowners, loss of use of a home would be an indirect loss.    An example of this is, Johnny’s house catches on fire, because of the smoke, Johnny cannot stay in the house.  Johnny has to rent a hotel room because of the smoke in his home.  This is an indirect loss.

An example on an auto insurance policy is when Judy crashes her car and has to have it repaired.  She rents an auto to use while her car is being repaired because she doesn’t have a car to drive back and forth to work.   The expense of the rental car is an indirect loss.

An example of an indirect loss for a business is lack of business income.  Because of a loss, the business can no longer gain income and therefore profits are hurt.

In conclusion, an indirect loss comes from a bigger loss.

 

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Personal Articles Floater(PAF), Insuring Individual Valuble Items

June 21, 2011 by Leave a comment

A Lot of us when setting up homeowners insurance, forget a very important item on our policies. Personal article floater insurance. A lot of us have very valuable items, that we don’t insure. One of these very obvious items is mostly you or your spouses wedding ring.

In this blog, I am going to cover what a personal article floater insurance policy is, and why you might be cutting yourself by not insuring something important.

 

What is a personal article floater?

Since valuable things such as jewelry are limited on the amount of coverage a home owners policy’s will cover, the industry offers this policy. The industry offers policies for jewelery, guns, coins, stamps, golf clubs camera’s and other items. This all depends on what the insurance company offers. The policy insures the individual item. Both the insured and insurer agree on insuring at a certain amount. An appraisal or some sort of proof of value is required. Sometimes a deductilbe does apply, at usually a very low level.  The most common personal article floater policies are for jewelry, mostly wedding rings.

Is this policy idealistic for me?

This all depends on the client. If you have a valuable wedding ring worth 50 thousand dollars, yes you should insure it. That alone is a small investment and fortune. Sometimes people decide its idealistic to self insure. I know a couple of gun collectors who don’t insure there guns. Th reason is so much cost over time. Sometimes you are better off getting a really good safe, and locking up your valuables in there, or even getting a safety deposit box.

 

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A Nice Homeowners Insurance Inventory Check List- Courtesy Colorado DORA Division Of Insurance

June 20, 2011 by Leave a comment

It is always good to take time and produce an inventory of your homes valuables and property. Here is a link to the Colorado Division of Insurance, courtesy inventory checklist. Please keep in mind that it is always a good idea, to store these documents externally. I would recommend Google Documents.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. We can write insurance in 45 states. Or Leave A Comment.

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So What is an HO-5 Policy?

June 7, 2011 by Leave a comment

When you are purchasing a Condominium, you need an HO-5 form.  This form is designed with the Condo in mind.  It provides open peril coverage on personal property and contents of the insured, in addition to open peril coverage on the dwelling and other structures.

Losses to personal property and contents are paid on an actual cash basis and losses to the dwelling are paid on a replacement cost basis.

Find out more by contacting Denvers Insurance and speak to one of our Insurance Agents.

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Why have my home insurance rates gone up?

May 15, 2011 by Leave a comment

In Colorado in July 2009, we had a major hail storm come through Denver and surrounding area’s. It came through and caused a little bit of property damage to homeowners roof’s. Now depending on the roof condition, a lot of homeowners filed a claim due to hail damage to their roof’s. Not only did I have a lot of clients who got new roof’s, but also I saw a lot of neighbors and people I didn’t know, by driving around the neighborhood and seeing these new roof’s getting replaced. A lot of roofer’s were going door to door, trying to sell people new roof’s paid by the insurance company. I knew a lot of people who were incredibly happy about their new roof’s and how the insurance companies, with no haggle, replaced their roof.

So what is the unintended consequences of all these roof’s being replaced? Well lets face it, the insurance company makes money off of your premiums you pay each year. So what happened when homeowners got their insurance re-newels? Well, a lot of them experienced sticker shock. Lets face it, the insurance company has to make it up those losses some how. So what they do is raise insurance premiums all across the board. This very unfair to the consumers who didn’t file a claim, but premiums are based off of loss experience.

So next time you get an insurance re-newel and your unhappy about the premium increase, don’t forget the insurance company just bought you a new roof. And if your one of those consumers who got hit with a premium increase and didn’t get a new roof. Maybe next time you should consider, because people will always take advantage of a new roof paid by the insurance company.

Loss experience + return on investment = Insurance premium rates.

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