You don’t have to live in Tornado Alley to have your life blown away. There are many more pitfalls today’s property owners have to evade somehow. Can you afford NOT to understand them all? You may also find that revisiting your homeowner’s policy saves you premiums, at a time when every penny can count too.

Let’s take a look at ten really good reasons you may want to look over your homeowner’s insurance policy.

1. Put simply, you simply have more things to ensure than you did before. The attic is full, the garage overflowing, and many of the new purchases may, or may not, be covered for all eventualities. Also, the value of your home’s contents has in all liklihood, gone up. Add to this the fact that the entire policy payout may not be enough to cover new items, the higher total value of your possessions and even the home, and you have a problem. Conversely, your situation may have changed in the opposite direction. Maybe the kids moved out, you decided to simplify, you simply do not need as much coverage as before. Whichever situation exists, you may be vulnerable to losing lots of money. The best way to determine this is with an inventory of your home, and an evaluation of your existing coverage.
2. You say you just remodeled? Just adding a new bath or kitchen upgrade impacts the value of your home significantly. Take today’s cost of remodeling, materials, and so on, and your homeowner’s insurance could be thousands off where replacements are concerned.
3. Rebuilding costs are up. The market value of your home is sometimes drastically different from the cost you will incur to replace it. The “real value” of the property is what you will be paying for if you have to rebuild, not the land and 2 x 4′s bought back when. This simply concept escapes many homeowners when they think about buying insurance, and especially after they have had insurance for a long time.
4. You’ve installed safety devices. Most insurance companies offer discounts when you add alarms, sprinklers, and other devices that protect your home.
5. Big ticket items like jewelry or even hi end electronics are sometimes excluded in some policies. Even if a policy has provisions for you getting a windfall and buying your spouse the crown jewels, the value of those gems will be lost if you don’t modify your insurance.
6. So you live in a flood or earthquake zone? Well, typical homeowner’s policies do not cover floods. The lightning or fire damage from some local calamity may be remedied, only to find out that all the water damage from the river overflowing is not. Flood insurance is available through some governments, but owners and renters are well advised to seek the advice of their independent agent here.
7. Your office is at home. Some policies have limitations as to whether or not you can have an office in your home. This is something you need to check out so you don’t get caught losing everything over a technicality. Go over your policy for any exclusions.
8. Changing insurance carriers. Homeowners can save a lot of money sometimes by “shopping” insurance carriers. Just combining auto, home and other coverage used to be the biggest savings here, but companies like Aviva, in Europe and the UK, offer incentives like discounts for buying online, and so on.
9. Asset protection. Most homeowners never think of their home as an asset really, but their opponent’s lawyer in a personal injury or other lawsuit may. The structural protection you need is one thing, bodily injury or property damage if someone gets injured in your back yard, is totally another. Are you covered? Can you bet your life you are, right now? You see the point we hope.  This press release via MarketWatch reveals some home economics tips you can use.
10. Home sweet, old home. Basic homeowner’s policies do not cover damage from that occur because of old pipes or symptoms some old homes experience. If you already own an older home, you have already experienced the idiosyncrasies here. Special policy add-on can help you defer loses you might otherwise incurred from owning that charming Victorian.

SmartSafer.org want the NFIP reformed to save taxpayer money © dschreiber29 - Fotolia.com

The letter says “Our diverse coalition believes that Congress could protect taxpayers and reduce inefficient federal spending by reforming NFIP. For over 40 years, the federal government, through NFIP, has provided significant subsidies for flood coverage. This has encouraged development in both dangerous and environmentally important and sensitive areas. These subsidies provide a disincentive to risk mitigation and puts American taxpayers at significant risk.”

The letter makes some very valid points as the NFIP is currently nearly $18 billion in debt to federal taxpayers, with this amount likely to increase as a result of recent flooding. If the NFIP isn’t reformed, American taxpayers are likely to be called upon to bail out the program time and time again. SmarterSafer.org is asking the committee to consider reforms based on common sense which will help protect both taxpayers and those living in areas considered to be at risk. These include eliminating subsidies over a five-year period and establishing a mapping council to ensure all maps are up-to-date and reflect real risk. Other possible reforms include requiring FEMA to examine the ability of the private sector to assist the program through reinsurance or catastrophic bonds, as well as streamlining and strengthening mitigation efforts.

The House has already passed a bipartisan bill to reform the NFIP, while a similar bill has been unanimously approved by the Senate Banking Committee. The NFIP is due to expire on November 18, and the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was created in order to come up with $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction measures over a ten-year period by November 23.

SmarterSafer.org is a national coalition made up of a diverse set of voices united to support environmentally responsible, fiscally sound approaches that promote public safety. It is strongly opposed to legislative proposals which would encourage people to build homes in hurricane prone or environmentally sensitive areas, through the creation of new programs that would directly or indirectly subsidize the homeowners insurance.

Even though most people have homeowners insurance, those who have suffered damage to their homes resulting from flooding – submerged basements, failed pumps and so on – are likely to find that their insurers will not cover this type of damage.

Hurricane Irene victims unlikely to get help for flood damage © Anddyv15 - Fotolia.com

The typical home insurance policy does not cover flood damage, and with the vast majority of problems caused by Hurricane Irene over the weekend were due to… You guessed it, flooding!

According to the Associated Press:

“Standard home insurance policies will cover some of the costs, such as structural damage if a tree was blown over into a house, or if a window was broken by the wind and rainwater managed to get inside the home. However, in most cases there is no coverage for homes or homeowners possessions when the damage is caused by flood waters. This includes homes that have been flooded out by storm surges and damage where water has seeped into the home through the basement.”

By the time Hurricane Irene hit New York, it had already been downgraded from a category one hurricane to a tropical storm, which meant winds were not as high as before. In New York, along with several other centers such as Vermont and New Jersey, most of the damage suffered was due to heavy rains and coastal flooding.

Compounding problems for homeowners who have been flooded out, a recent poll conducted by the Insurance Information Institute showed that only around 5% of homeowners in the North East have taken out flood insurance.