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Home Owner
Insurance Endorsements
Endorsements or Floaters as they are sometimes
known
are additional insurance covers you can buy to add to your home owners
insurance policy. Endorsements cover specific risks that are not included on
your
standard policy and your personal circumstances will dictate what you
actually need. We hope you will find the list below to be useful but
if you need any assistance always seek professional help from your
agent.
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Scheduled Endorsement -
most insurance companies have established certain reimbursement limits
to what you can claim for on personal items. As a result, valuable or
precious items like jewellery, antiques and silverware may not be
adequately covered under your standard home owner insurance policy.
Each Scheduled Endorsement covers a specified item listed along
with its value.
This will then be the amount of pay out in the event of a claim. A certain amount of extended coverage is
also possible apart from normal perils (i.e. stone from an engagement
ring is lost due to a loose setting). Much like Guaranteed Contents,
depreciation of value is not a issue. Having scheduled items can
can increase your home owner insurance premiums significantly.
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Blanket Endorsement -
Instead of scheduling a list of individual items, a single Blanket
Endorsement will cover a wide range of your personal belongings. It
"blankets" its cover over what your insurance company offers
to cover: jewellery, items of art, golf equipment etc.
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Earthquake - earthquake Insurance may be added as an endorsement. It protects
against damage incurred from an earthquake, tremors and aftershocks.
It is usually offered in the form of a deductible, approx 10% of your
home's insurance (your home is insured for $200,000: you pay $20,000).
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Ordinance and Law -
all homes are usually built in line with construction laws and
codes in force at the time. Over the years, these laws and codes
may change, new features may be introduced to make homes safer, better
quality ,materials may be required. If your old home where to suffer a
large amount of damage, a standard policy would not help you to
reinstate your home up to the latest code values.
The Ordinance and Law endorsement extends coverage for the additional
costs of reconstructing your home under current codes.
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Personal Injury - this is a form of extended liability insurance coverage. Your standard
policy covers "normal," more physical injuries (i.e. your
guest breaks his leg whilst attending a party at your home), Personal
Injury helps protect you from situations such as; lawsuits of
Libel, Slander and Defamation of Character. Check your policy wording
as this may already be included.
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Income Property - your standard policy's liability coverage doesn't include structures
you rent for personal income. You may rent out part of your Home
and you will need a separate endorsement " Income
Property" to help cover you. Although your tenant may have his/her own
Renter's Insurance policy, the premises liability may still fall
on you and as such you need to insure against this eventuality.
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Guaranteed Dwelling -
the market value of your home is calculated by many factors including
the land it actually sits upon, the quality of local schools, local
social issues and the desirability of the neighborhood itself Standard
home owner insurance does not cover this market value, it only covers
your home's replacement value (how much it would cost to rebuild).
With Guaranteed Dwelling, your insurer will cover the cost of
rebuilding your home even if it is in excess of your policy
limit. For example, your home is "worth" $280,000 on the
market, but would only cost $230,000 to rebuild. With Guaranteed
Dwelling, your insurer would pay the extra $50,000 if it is necessary
to do so.
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Guaranteed Contents -
depreciation of value is common with personal items. Things like HI-FI,
televisions. electrical goods and furniture lose their value as
time goes by, under a standard home owner policy, your insurer would
reimburse you following a valid claim minus the depreciation ( a 3
year old item would have 3 years depreciation
( this is called actual cash value). With Guaranteed Contents, you're
guaranteed replacement regardless of depreciation. You would be
reimbursed with the amount you paid three years ago or have it
replaced with a comparable item.
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Other Structures - Structures
such as fences, tool sheds and benches are usually covered by a 10%
limit from your standard home owner policy (i.e. your home is insured
for $200,000 so structures are covered for $20,000). However, this may
not always be adequate for larger or more elaborate structures. Other Structures endorsement increases the limit to
help cover costs in the event of loss.
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