I’m not at our home right now; in fact, I’m a few hundred miles away. But I just got a call from my wife telling me of the excitement last night and today in our neighbourhood.
It seems a house we can see from our own front porch burned down in the early morning hours of today (Friday the 7th). It’s gone; all that is left is the foundation. My wife watched last night as the firefighters fought the blaze, and she saw the report tonight on the evening TV news. Fortunately, the family was able to get out, as was the pet dog. All are fine–but the family had no insurance on the house or contents! Damages and losses are estimated at $300,000 to $400,000. The family is out that much money.
So my question: Do you have homeowner’s or tenant’s insurance on your place? If so, why? If not, why not? What would make a family not get insurance to cover these situations?
For the record, I’ve insured our house and contents to the hilt (fire, theft, other coverages, etc.). Our mortgage company demands insurance, but I’d get it even if they didn’t. My wife and I have a lot invested in our house; I would hate to lose all the money we’ve put into our house so far. Not to mention the goods we have–cash will never replace sentimental value, but at least the monetary value of the goods won’t be lost, assuming there is any.
I started getting tenant’s insurance when I began to acquire more possesions than I could replace with a quick trip to Goodwill. I can’t imagine why anyone owning a house wouldn’t have it.
Our house was partially destroyed last year by a 200 year old oak tree strike. It did $260,000 in damage and insurance covered most of it. During that ordeal, I found out how bad it could have been if it had burned to the ground or something. We wouldn’t have had enough to cover insurance to cover a total replacement and our insurance was lacking in other ways as well. I met with the agent and bumped up the limits much higher than they were. I did the same with my car liability insurance after a minor collision threatened us badly because the auto liability limits were set so low. Good insurance coverage doesn’t really cost much more over marginal or poor and it can save you big someday.
Absolutely. Note that tenants insurance (well, mine anyway) also covered you for liability. It costs nothing (mine is ~$50/year or some such, I don’t even remember) and you can’t beat peace of mind.
I live in an apartment, and I have $40K’s worth of insurance. Definitely worth the 15 bucks a month I pay, but I didn’t get it until this year, after reading on a local message board of families losing all their belongings and having to depend on others’ generosity.
Fellow tenants: **Do ** it, and budget for it. It’s not that much for that peace of mind.
In my first and only rental unit, I had renter’s insurance. Both homes I’ve owned have had all peril with guaranteed rebuild coverage, contents coverage, and riders for certain goods. Although I’ve never had to use those policies, I couldn’t sleep without them, for fear of an awshit.
According to CTV Calgary, there is a fund set up at the Royal Bank. Best I can do from where I am (Edmonton, currently), but at least a local Royal branch should be able to help you further.
Good to know, folks. I must admit, my wife asked me on the phone tonight, “Why wouldn’t they have insurance?” I couldn’t answer. Nice to know that a number of you have the same question I did. And nice to see that you have coverage as well.
Aside to Alice: If you ever see somebody smoking a pipe on their front porch while looking out over the park, come up and say hello. Or, you can always pop in to BP’s Sports Bar (up near Canadian Tire) and ask if Spoons has been in. Most of the staff up there know me by “Spoons” as you might have guessed, and I’d be happy to buy you a drink if it let me say hello to a fellow Doper.
We’ve got the car insured to the hilt, but our landlord has been slacking heavily on giving us info we need for renter’s insurance, namely when this house was built. Thanks for the nudge; I’ll have to get back to nagging about that.
Thanks for the reminder! Our house is throughly insured - including contents - and we had to increase the coverage when I converted the double garage into a cat suite/office. But my collection of game-worn hockey jerseys is not included, nor are my folk art original paintings. Got to get the camera out!
