Home Owner Insurance – Why You Need It and Don't

Author: L Woodbr
Source: articleage.combr
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Its one of those things that home-based business owners often never think about. Many home-based business owners assume that their home insurance policy also covers their business activities. The fact is the standard home insurance policy does not cover most home businesses. In addition to this, your home based business activities can void all coverage provided under your home insurance policy.
Home insurance policies provide coverage for residences, not places of business. Using your home for an activity that your insurance company is not aware of can potentially leave you with no coverage at all.
The type of home-based business insurance you will need really depends on the type of business you have.
For example:
? A graphic artist can easily have $20,000.00 in computer equipment and software in their home.
? People who sell products often take inventory and samples with them when visiting clients, along with cell phones and laptops.
? A customer could slip and fall during an appointment at a home based bookkeeping business.
? If you use your vehicle for business, then youll need to make sure your auto policy covers your vehicle while being used for business purposes.
? A home-based manufacturer could be held liable if the manufactured product causes injury to a consumer.
? If your business provides a service, you may need professional liability insurance to protect your personal assets, pay defense costs and ensure that your customers are adequately taken care of should they suffer damages as a result of your services.
? If you provide services away from your home, at your customers premises, you may need completed operations coverage to protect yourself from liability that could occur after youve left the premises and your customer begins to use whatever you were working on and injury or damage occurs.
Not all home based businesses are the same, and neither are their insurance needs.
Take a good look at your business and determine exactly what your insurance needs are. Decide a value on the inventory, equipment, and business contents in your home. How many customers come to your home? How would your business be affected if a disaster forced you out of your home?
Then talk to your insurance agent or broker about your business and get some good advice on what types of coverages you should consider for your business. Ask about home based business insurance packages. If you belong to a business organization or association see if they offer an insurance plan or get group discounts on insurance.
Try to get more than one quote so you can compare coverages and costs. Once your research is done, make a decision and purchase some business insurance. Youre in business and you want to stay that way, so make sure you protect your assets and your customers.
Liane Wood is a chartered insurance professional and registered insurance broker specializing in personal and small business insurance. Visit her website at: http://www.Insurance-Rates.ca.br
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Author: Marilyn Katzbr
Source: ezinearticles.combr
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What is Home Contents Insurance?

The personal items in your home, like your tv, computers, jewelry, and books are probably worth thousands of dollars. In fact, the value of some peoples personal property is worth as much, or more, than the actual structure they live in. That is, if they actually had to pay to replace it, and did not just think about the used or quot;garage salequot; value of those items.

Typical US Families Own Anbsp;nbsp;Lot of quot;Stuffquot;

Think about a typical US family of four that consists of two parents and two children. At the least, their home is likely to contain three tv sets, two computers, a wedding ring, a fridge, clothes, software, movies, and many other valuable items. If you really sat down and calculated what it would cost to replace those items, it could add up to many tens of thousands of dollars or more.

Since you probably did not buy everything at the same time, but spread out these purchases over years or decades, you may not be aware of the value of the things your family owns!

Home Business Owners Need To Plan for Coverage

Home businesses, or at least home offices, are becoming very popular these days. Business related items like laptops, inventory, and records can double or triple that total. Maybe your accounts are just printed on cheap paper, but how much does it really cost you to replace them?

Real Value vs. Replacement Value

Home contents insurance or personal property coverage will protect your investment in the property inside your home. Many standard homeowners policies contain this protection, but you need to make sure it is sufficient. You also need to consider hw the insurer will value this property. If it is valued at its real value, a tv set may only be worth $50 at a garage sale. But that same set would cost $500 to replace! If your property is covered at replacement value, you will be able to buy new things in case your old ones are damaged in a covered accident.

Who needs property insurance?

Well, everybody who owns personal property, and keeps it in their home, needs coverage. Again, it may be included in a typical homeowners policy, but many homeowners really do not have enough protection.

But two groups of people may concentrate on personal property as the bulk of their protection.

Renters – Since renters do not own the actual structure they live in, they can probably leave that up to their landlords policy. However, a renters insurance policy provides valuable property coverage for the things inside the house or apartment. A renters policy can also provide some liability insurance and relocation assistance.

Condo Owners – These dwellers may seek coverage that is similar to a tenants policy even though they own their dwelling space. The building association may cover the outside of the building, but condominium owners are sure to need to cover their own stuff.nbsp; And of course, they will want to consider liability protection and relocation assistance in case they cannot live in their home if it is being repaired.

Evaluate Your Home Insurance Policy

You should probably sit down and look at your policy every year or so. You may not have considered insurance when you bought a new big screen tv or computer the way you do when you buy a car. But maybe you should have. You should also do some periodic price and policy shopping to make sure you have top quality coverage at an affordable price. Things change with insurers, just as they do with local areas. You cannot always assume your old insurer is the best, especially if your assets have changed.

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