San Leandro, CA Pleasanton, CA Home Insurance Inspections – Why They Matter

We get it!  Having your insurance company come and inspect your home can be a nuisance and can feel like an invasion of privacy.  Honestly, my first thought would be to disregard their request and move on with life especially if you have deferred maintenance and/or other issues that you don’t want to deal with.

 But wait – why do home inspections matter when it comes to your insurance?  The inspection is important to your insurance company because they would like to determine if the property is well maintained and that there isn’t some lurking liability concern such as an exposed hazard or vehicle on blocks that might be ready to injury someone.  On the other hand, the inspection becomes part of your “file”, so that if you have a loss such as a fire, your file will have a lot of documentation about what you are insuring. There’s really no doubt that you had high end finishes and/or upgraded appliances when it’s all documented in your file.

Since your home is likely one of your biggest assets (if not your biggest!) it definitely makes sense to purchase a comprehensive policy from a carrier that’s willing to take the extra steps for you.  During the past two years of wildfires in California, many many homeowners have been unhappy with their insurance coverage and company.  In many of these cases, the insurance limits are too low and the homeowner is coming up short when trying to rebuild their home.  This stinks!

Think about how to make this a better experience – so if your home insurance premium is $1,000 per year (just an example) and you saved $200 because another policy cost more, what if that extra $200 had 50% more coverage?  Yes this happens.  Most carriers have extended replacement cost provisions on their policies, but some are an extra 20% while others are an extra 100%!  Often the carrier that requires the inspection has the higher replacement cap.

Talk to us about choosing the best option for your home insurance.  We look forward to it!