The thoughts of a tree falling on the roof of your house, flood invading your home or having your home burgled is something that most homeowners think about and end up going to get a home insurance. However, these are the realities of every homeowner because there are risks everywhere and having home insurance policy claims puts you in a strong position to protected you home and cut down on risks. However, people often ask questions like can you keep home insurance claim money and that is what this article is going to address.
Property claims as a percent gotten from total claims has risen very much in the last decade and this unexpected rise actually happened over a very short period of time. The statistics of homeowners insurance claims keeps showing an increase in insurance claims that are related to weather and most especially water claims. It is very important for every homeowner to be aware of the insurance claims process, what to expect from it, how it works as well as getting important advice and tips on how to manage the claims process.
Can You Keep Home Insurance Claim Money
Property damage, accident damage and weather damage are things that are bound to happen to almost every home. One information that you really need to get familiar with as a homeowner is knowing when to go ahead and file a claim. It might sound very easy or simple to file a claim but however, filing a claim comes at a cost that one needs to carefully consider. Below are some of the key things that would happen when you go on to file a claim.
Deductible – Filing a claim simply means you have to pay for your deductibles
Insurance record – Once you file a claim, it is definitely going to appear on your insurance record
Claim status – One thing you should ensure is making sure you have the right coverage before filing because failure to do so might cause your claim to get denied
Paperwork – Filing a home insurance claim also means filling out an inventory completely on missing and damaged items as well as providing photo images and proof of receipts
Insurance rates – Once you file a claim as well, it is likely to cause your insurance rates to increase as well
However, whether you or not you decide to file a home insurance claim, it is quite dependent on several factors and these factors include the amount on your deductible, your claim cost, your claims history, loss of claims free discount, ones ability to pay out of his pocket for damages. In most cases, it makes a lot of sense if you decide to pay for any of these damages out of your pocket especially if you can be able to afford it. Filing for a small claim is able to have an impact on your insurance rates.
Cost of repairs and significant damages would warrant you to actually file a claim and what you should do is consider all of the costs that we have listed before going on to file a claim. Filing for home insurance claim means it is likely to stay about five to seven years in your record and at this time, a claim impact would also tell on your insurance rates. Even if you change insurance providers, your insurance record is still going to follow you. We talked about having your claims denied and here are some reasons why such can happen;
Lack of providing proof
Lack of having the right coverage
Having poor maintenance of property
If the damage is intentional
Perils that are not insured
The main question that we always get hit with is can you keep home insurance claim money and our answer to that question is YES. Even though the money was provided so you can get to fix up any damage that must have happened in your home, it is also up to you to do whatever you wish to do with the money. If there are also left over money then you can also go on and keep those as well.
It is also very important for you to make use of an insurance claim money for its actual purpose. This purpose is for restoring your home to its former state before the accident happened. There are homeowners who would choose to accept funds and also get contractors to do the job for them while other would prefer the insurance company to pay the contractors directly.
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