4 Homeowners Insurance Terms Everyone Should know

10/6/2023 (Permalink)

9/5/2023

Owning your own home can be a rewarding experience, but it can also be expensive. Not only do you have to constantly maintain your home, but there are risks you can't control, such as flooding and fire. For this reason, if you own a home, you need homeowners insurance, which will cover some or all costs of covered disasters. To better protect your home, check out these four insurance terms you need to know.

1) Peril
A peril is anything that could risk damage to your home, and it's one of the main reasons to have homeowners insurance because the insurance company may pay some or all repairmen/replacement costs. Not all perils are included in most homeowners insurance policies. In general, however, they cover the most common types of perils, such as theft or fire.

If you live in an area with frequent flooding, you may be able to purchase additional insurance to protect against flood damage. Most general policies exclude flood damage unless the damage was sudden and unexpected, such as a new washing machine that fails and floods your laundry room.

2) Catastrophe
Flood insurance is actually a type of catastrophe insurance. A catastrophe is a disaster (man-made or natural) that causes significant damage. It can be one major event or a handful of events that devastate your property. Catastrophes are not usually covered under your standard insurance policy, but they may be necessary if you live in an area with lots of earthquakes, flooding, tornadoes or hurricanes.

Catastrophe insurance comes in many forms. If you really want to protect everything you own from flooding or terrorist attacks, you can get a policy that will cover the property and everything inside. For a cheaper premium, however, you can also choose a policy that only covers the house and nothing inside.

3) Actual Cash Value
When your insurance carrier reimburses you, they may give you the actual cash value (sometimes referred to as market value). This will provide money to repair or replace the damage after considering depreciation. For example, if your deck is destroyed, but it was getting old anyway, the insurance carrier will take the age into account. In other words, they may not give you enough to actually cover the total replacement.

If the deck was brand new, however, there is less depreciation, so you may not have to pay any out-of-pocket expenses. In this case, the insurance carrier would give you the replacement value. Regardless of what type of coverage you have, however, they will only provide money for similar materials and quality. You can't have the insurance carrier replace your damaged asphalt roof with a tile shingle roof.

4) Exclusion
Every insurance policy has exclusions. Exclusions are disasters and instances when the insurance carrier will not reimburse you. Exclusions usually include any damage that was related to maintenance issues or damage that was easy to control. Even if you take great care of your home, parts need to be replaced. Insurance will not cover these routine repairs.

In most cases, the policy will have an actual section detailing all the exclusions (all-risk policies), so you can immediacy know what is and what is not covered. A peril-specific policy, which only covers a handful of disasters, will list what is covered. Anything else is considered an exclusion.

Don't gamble with your property by neglecting to purchase or have enough homeowners insurance. It can be the difference between losing your home and repairing it after a disaster.

Ryan Hollister Racing

2/22/2021 (Permalink)

"Thank you SERVPRO and the Kelly family for your support" -Ryan Hollister Racing

Thank you Ryan, for dropping off some pretty amazing photos of your race car as a thank you for our continued sponsorship! We look forward to continuing our support for the 2021 season and beyond! 

Fire Safety & Your Pets

7/21/2019 (Permalink)

Pet Oxygen Mask Bags - donated by SERVPRO of Eaton, Clinton, and Gratiot Counties, Lansing & Holt

It's important to include your pets in your fire evacuation plan. After all, they're family too! In the event of a fire, you will likely have your mind set on getting your family, and yourself, safely out of your home. To ensure your entire family (pets included) gets to a safe spot quickly, here are a few tip to make sure nobody gets left behind.

 *KEEP COLLARS AND LEASHES AT EXIT

Animals, like humans, can get disoriented and scared when a fire happens. The combination of loud alarms, smoke, and flames in their home can make even the most calm pet panic. Be sure to keep all members of your family close and safe.

 *KNOW WHERE YOUR PETS ARE AT

Knowing where your pets are at all times helps to decrease the time it takes to get them out of the house safely. In the evenings, be sure your pet is in his/her crate, or barricaded into a room. Sometimes animals will hide when they get scared, so keeping them in a designated safe place will make your rescue mission a lot easier.

 *INCLUDE PETS WHEN PRACTICING EVACUATION DRILLS

We all know, after making an exit strategy for house fire, or what to do in the event of a tornado, we should practice. Don't forget to practice with your pet. Designate a family member to retrieve your animal(s) and PRACTICE WITH THEM! This helps to reduce any confusion on who should be doing what in the event of a real emergency.

SERVPRO knows that the safety of your pets is important following a disaster, so we've done our part in outfitting our community's local fire departments with pet oxygen masks. This ensures that all beings in the home have access to clean oxygen after potential smoke inhalation. Stay safe neighbors! And remember, practice makes perfect.

ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY

6/7/2019 (Permalink)

Our roadside spring cleaning is complete!

SERVPRO of Eaton County, Clinton and Gratiot counties, Lansing & Holt has been a part of Adopt-A-Highway since 2008. We proudly maintain a 2 mile stretch of rural highway from spring to fall every year.
Adopt-A-Highway and SERVPRO share a couple common goals that can be summed up by the 2 SERVPRO slogans.

• SEE GREEN, THINK CLEAN - Not only does this refer to our brightly colored service vehicles, but also to the sides of our roadways. We like to see clean, green grass as we travel to help our next customer.
  
  
• "Like it never even happened." - Not only do we strive to make your home or business "Like it never even happened," but we also like to make our roadsides look the same. We do our best to get your home or business back to its original condition previous to the loss, and clean up our roadsides to their pre-manmade litter conditions as well.

Grand Opening Celebration in St. Johns

8/15/2016 (Permalink)

The set up for our Celebration!

In October we started construction on our new addition to the exsisting building in St. Johns. We needed the space to better serve our Clinton & Gratiot Counties franchise but, this additional will allow to better serve all of our coverage areas and beyond. We were very excited to hold our Grand Opening celebration this past weekend during the 32nd Annual St. Johns Mint Festival. We had many fun activities going on. These activities included a SERVPRO bounce house, a hot dog cook out and give aways. We also had the Team Beacon #T3 SERVPRO Modified Racecar on display for visitors to sit in and take pictures with. The St. Johns Fire Department also stopped by to eat and to show off their brand new truck. All in all it was a great way to connect with the community and get started at our shop!

CBC

6/14/2016 (Permalink)

Our banner in the outfield

We are very proud to have been able to donate to CBC for the 3rd year in a row. The Charlotte Baseball Club teaches kids, ages 9-16, the fundamentals of America's favorite pass time on competitive, travelling teams. Good Luck CBC!!!!

St. Mary Parent Club Jr. Color Run

6/10/2016 (Permalink)

Here at SERVPRO of Eaton County, Clinton and Gratiot Counties. Lansing & Holt, we love to get to work and get dirty. It was only natural when we heard about an opportunity to support a Color Run that benefits the St. Mary School in Charlotte, we had to help! 

This Sunday, June 12, you too can have your chance to exercise, help a wonderful school, and GET COLORED!! With so many benefits in one event, why wouldn't you want to help out? 

The Jr. Color Run will begin at 1pm, and concessions will be available beginning at 12:30pm. The cost to participate is $20/child, $25/adult, or $100/family which includes 2 adults and up to 4 children. This cost includes a T-shirt and sunglasses for each participant. 

The event will be held at:

 807 St Marys Blvd, Charlotte, MI 48813

Phone: 517-543-3460

Come run and have a blast getting dirty for a cause!!!!