With the Silverado Fire in our rear view mirror, we wanted to share some great things your home insurance can do for you. We had a lot of panicked clients call us this week, who were unsure of their coverage. First, let me start out by saying, hazard insurance is home insurance, which is fire insurance. They are all one and the same. A lot of times, escrow or lenders, will lead you to believe fire insurance is separate from your home owners insurance. The good news is, fire is included (wild fire or not).
In a situation like what we had in Orange County this week, we had a number of people who were mandatorily evacuated due to the approaching fire. When the police or fire department says "you need to leave due to the fire," your home insurance will help you afford to live somewhere else for up to 14 days. This coverage is called loss of use or additional living expense. We hope your home does not burn down and in the event of a covered claim (like a fire), the loss of use coverage would be available for up to 2 years. In some situations, there may be an extension of an additional year or two and that mandate would come from the department of insurance.
Most often loss of use coverage is a dollar amount or a time frame (24 months). With a specific time frame, the coverage will help pay for additional living expenses, without a dollar limit. If there is a dollar limit, unfortunately, that is the limit of your coverage, even if the amount of time is extended by the department of insurance. Our advice is to use your money wisely, because you never know how long it will take to rebuild if everything was gone.
We had several clients ask if they could stay at the Ritz Carlton, since they were evacuated. Unfortunately, insurance companies will not just allow everyone to stay at the Ritz. Once you file a claim, the claims adjusters are the individuals who are assigned to your claim. They will ultimately interpret your coverage and decide how much money you would have per day to stay somewhere else.
Fires are very scary especially when they are knocking on our back door. With the fire behind us now, I hope you all can rest a little easier knowing you have the right coverage. If you have any questions, we are always here to help you.
We hope you have a safe and HAPPY Halloween.
