September 18, 2012 Investopedia
You buy insurance to protect your home and car from damage, but when an accident happens, is it in your best interest to file a claim? It seems like the answer should be a resounding “yes,” but a middling “maybe” is a far better response. Why the ambiguity? The decision to file a claim can have a major impact on your insurance rates, even if the accident was minor or not your fault.
Every year, many homes and commercial buildings are damaged by severe storms. Property owners become the victims of unlicensed, uninsured, and inexperienced contractors as well as outright scammers who come to prey on uninformed people.
Poor-quality contractors and scammers can cause permanent damage, devalue your property, steal your money, and put you at personal, legal, and financial risk—not to mention all the headaches! Many scams begin with a knock at your door or an unsolicited call on the phone from someone who claims to be a contractor.
Unfortunately, many scam companies imitate legitimate contractors, so protect yourself by checking your contractor out before agreeing to an inspection. Make sure any contractor you work with is properly licensed, insured, and provides three local references.
Most homeowner claims result from negligence or as the result of a component of the home deteriorating. Your best bet in preventing a claim is to perform routine maintenance and never ignore a developing problem. Implement the following preventative measures and precautions to keep your home safe and accident-free:
- Kitchen fire
– The majority of fire losses originate in the kitchen due to food that is left unattended on the stove or grease ignition. Never put out a grease fire with water. Use baking soda or flour instead.
- Careless smoking
– Always pay attention to how cigarettes are discarded. Do not discard cigarettes in trash cans where other debris can ignite.
- Candles
– Never leave a room with an unattended, lit candle.
- Fireplace ashes – Never discard ashes in a combustible container or store them in or around the house or garage. Ashes can remain active for days and combust when fuel and air are introduced. Store ashes in the yard away from your home, or introduce water into the container to ensure that the embers are extinguished.
- Dryer fire
– Every year you should clean the lint build-up from under your clothes dryer. The motor can ignite the lint if too much lint accumulates.
- Washing machine hose
– Check the washing machine hoses annually for dry rot, cracking, and tightening. Hoses should be replaced every couple of years. The water to the unit should be turned off when not in use.
- Refrigerator ice maker line
– Often these lines become pinched and start to leak. This causes damage to the flooring material and cabinets. Check the lines annually.
- Valves to sinks and toilets
– As your home ages, you should continue to check all plumbing fixtures and connections. Look for corrosion and rust around valves. If your home is over 20-years-old, consider having a plumber check and replace all connections and hoses.
- Theft of property from vehicle
– Do not leave valuable items in plain view inside your vehicle. Use the trunk instead.
- Ice dams
– Make sure your gutters are free of debris in the spring and fall to ensure that water can run off the roof and down gutter drains. If you have several inches of snow on your roof, consider shoveling back the first few feet to allow the snow above to melt and drain from the gutter. Be safe and do not endanger your safety by doing this from the roof. Use a ladder instead.
Sewage is one of the most dangerous substances to enter homes or buildings. It contains fungi, bacteria, and viruses, many of which are disease-causing. Unfortunately, many people fail to understand the hazards that sewage presents, particularly for the very young, very old, those with compromised immune systems, or those with respiratory problems.
Here are the key principles homeowners should know about sewage back-ups:
- Sewage contains a variety of pathogenic–disease causing–fungi, bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Anyone who works on sewage losses must have updated vaccinations, including one for Hepatitis B.
- Sewage exposure is particularly dangerous for people with weakened immune systems including anyone under 2 or over 60; those who are pregnant, ill, recovering from surgery, on prescription drugs, or going through chemotherapy; or are AIDS victims.
- It is not safe to stay in a building that’s flooded with sewage unless the contaminated area can be completely sealed off and placed under controlled air flow so that there will be no cross contamination of unaffected areas.
- Highly absorbent sewage-saturated materials, such as carpet, pad, upholstery, bedding, wicker, paper, or even fabrics that can’t be washed in hot water (130°F/54°C) for at least 10 minutes, must be contained and disposed of properly. This goes for sewage-saturated drywall, insulation, and several other structural materials, too. There’s simply too great a health risk involved if any of these materials are dried in place and cleaned only.
- Only the most highly trained professionals should attempt sewage remediation work. Then, a third party indoor environmental professional can provide post-remediation verification or clearance testing to ensure that the home or building is safe to re-occupy.