The Haas Agency » Claims

7 Tips to Prevent Basement Water Damage

Timothy J. Haas — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:41:19 +0000

With the heavy rains in Connecticut recently, people are finding their basements flooded. Your standard homeowners’ policy does not cover damage from ground water, so that prevention is critical. First, take a look around your basement to check for any water or damp areas. Perhaps, some water has already come inside, and this should be removed quickly with a shop-vac to prevent mold.

Here are other tips:

Do some outdoor maintenance around your property. Check your gutters are cleaned out and clear so water can flow freely. If they aren’t cleared out water gets backed up and will pool below the gutters, often near your basement which causes flooding.
Take a walk around your yard and check that you provide some sort of drain for the area. Any standing water could leak in and cause major basement flooding damage.
Check any drainage pipes and downspouts are clear and properly aligned to move water away from the foundation of the house, and extend any drainage pipes further away from the foundation.
Be sure trees and shrubbery are kept neat and clean around the perimeter of the house. Allow space for the sun to reach the ground and dry any standing water beneath the plants.
Inspect the house, especially the basement walls; make sure that you don’t see any cracks. If you find cracks in your basement foundation you’ll need to make sure they are properly sealed with caulk.
If you have a history of basement flooding in your home, any items you have stored in the basement should be kept a few inches off the ground. The same should be done for any appliances like a washer and dryer, or refrigerator. If the basement gets flooded these items will get rotted or rusted and contribute to the problem.
If you don’t have a sump pump installed in your basement, you should have one installed. Sump pumps remove water that forms in the basement and drain it into an area where it won’t cause much damage; a dehumidifier and desiccants can help keep the air dry and absorb some of the moisture that could potentially flood the basement if condensed.

As you can see a lot of these tips are very simple and can do a lot to prevent flooding in your basement. With a little upkeep on your property and some minor adjustments to your basement you can prevent serious water damage from basement flooding.

Should you want to learn more about flooding or flood insurance, please contact us. We’re here for you.

Does Your Connecticut Home Insurer Have Reinsurance?

haas — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:23:54 +0000

Connecticut homeowners need to be aware of the importance of reinsurance. Reinsurance is the protection insurance companies purchase in order to put a cap on losses they incur in the event of a catastrophe.

For example, your home insurance carrier purchases an insurance contract that protects them if the losses from a catastrophe exceed $20 million. In this case the insurance company that insures your house would pay the first $20 million in claims and another insurer would reimburse the carrier for any amount above that amount.

The companies that provide reinsurance charge a premium to the primary carriers for the cost of the protection. Recently, the State of Connecticut Insurance Department has allowed insurance companies to pass along their cost of reinsurance to consumers.

Why is this important to you? Well, if the carrier that insures your home or business does not have reinsurance they may not have enough capital to pay all the claims as a result of a serious catastrophe. The question is not if a serious storm should occur it is when a serious storm occurs will your carrier have the capacity to pay the claims.

Two questions should be asked of your agent?

Does the carrier the agent is placing the business with have reinsurance to cover claims if there is a catastrophe?
Will that carrier be passing on the additional cost of the reinsurance premium to the policyholder?

Home Insurance Contents Inventory–Connecticut Family Action 4

Paul F. Haas, Jr. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:52:22 +0000

One of the most common questions we receive is how can an insured prove what they owned in the event of a claim if the contents are destroyed or stolen. The short answer to that question is to take a video or DVD camera and film the interior of the home, condo or apartment. (Some items that are lost may require a receipt or owners manual as verification).

The better question that should be asked is: “how do I remember everything I own?” Most insurance carriers do not question the common contents people have in their homes so that is not the issue. What they don’t or can’t pay for are the items that an insured does not remember after a claim has happened–thus the reason for the videotape. That tape will enable you to recall many things that you would not recall when you are in the middle of a crisis.

The way to make this seemingly unimportant task happen is to schedule the time to do it. I suggest a weekend day . Just open all the closet and cabinet doors and walk through the house providing a narrative as you go. Stand in one corner of a room and pan the entire room and then stand in the opposite corner and do the same thing. Go room by room from the basement to the attic and you will be amazed at the things you have accumulated that you may not have remembered.

Finally, put the tape or DVD in a safe place offsite in case it it ever needed.

Claim Costs by Zip Code

Paul F. Haas, Jr. — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:40:11 +0000

I was checking to see what was new on the Allstate website one night and noticed the site gave people an idea of the most common homeowner claims by zip code along with there costs. It was eye opening even for me! I thought that different zip codes close to one another would have similar types of claims and losses, boy was I wrong.

If you would like to check it out click here and enter your zip code