Home Project Snowballs

A true story from the life of an agent on staff:

We were looking forward to replacing our exterior door and because it seemed manageable, planned on doing it ourselves.  In retrospect, it was probably a mistake.  My husband removed the door frame including the threshold and we found what we believe are termites and carpenter ants along with the damaged sill and other areas.  At least it seems to be isolated to that small area.   He tore out the affected areas and sprayed with the old toxic chemicals that were on hand.  We made multiple trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot to pick up supplies and more spray to treat the affected areas.  We’re not done yet and as it turns out, we’re replacing the deck now instead of next year so that he has easier access to replace the damaged area.  Unfortunately, our homeowners policy won’t step in either, as there are exclusions for insect damage, wear and tear, deterioration, and other damages that happen over time. 

If you’re more inclined to hire a carpenter than try this kind of project yourself, be sure to ask for a certificate of insurance, showing they have liability and workers compensation insurance.     This should be a minimum “legitimacy” level for any contractor, and is one good way to separate the pros from the amateurs!  For a project like ours, we should have found a pro!

Keep in mind that insect damage is not usually covered under a Homeowners policy:
“Additional Exclusions”. We do not cover, with respect to any property, any loss resulting from, caused by, contributed
to, or aggravated by any of the following:

1. Wear and tear, marring, or deterioration;
2. Inherent vice, latent defect, or mechanical breakdown;
3. Rust or other corrosion, mold, or wet or dry rot;
4. Contamination, smog, or smoke from agricultural or industrial operations, including smudging;
5. Settling, shrinking, bulging, or expansion, including resultant cracking, of pavements, patios, foundations, walls, floors, roofs, ceilings, fences, swimming pools, retaining walls, or bulkheads, whether resulting from growth of vegetation or otherwise;
6. Birds, vermin, animals, rodents, or insects, except that this exclusion does not apply to collapse under Coverages A and B, under which we do not cover loss involving collapse resulting from detectable decay or detectable damage by birds, vermin, animals, rodents, or insects, and that any ensuing loss resulting directly from a Peril Insured Against to property described in Coverages A and B is covered.

 

For more insurance information, as well as topical and relevant resources. Visit our website or recieve an online quote.

In the Doghouse

For many homeowners, a dog is a cherished member of the household; according to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 77.5 million household dogs in the U.S., a whopping 39 percent of all households. Normally, human-dog interaction is a positive experience for both animal and person, but lately, dog-bite statistics have been increasing. Dog bites accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claims paid out in 2009, costing $412 million and up 8.70 percent from 2008, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

More than 4.7 million people in the United States are bitten by dogs annually, and nearly 900,000 of those, half of them children, require medical care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of those injured, 386,000 require treatment in an emergency department. The rate of dog bite related injuries is highest for children aged five to nine years old; the rate decreases thereafter. With more than 50 percent of bites occurring on the dog owner’s property, the issue is a major source of concern for insurers.

Dog Owner Liability
There are three kinds of law that impose liability on owners:
1. Dog-bite statute: The dog owner is automatically liable for any injury or property damage the dog causes, even without provocation.
2. “One-bite” rule: In some states, the owner is not held liable for the first bite the dog inflicts. Once an animal has demonstrated vicious behavior, such as biting or otherwise displaying a ‘vicious propensity’, the owner can be held liable. Some states have moved away from the one-bite rule and hold owners responsible for any injury, regardless of whether the animal has previously bitten someone.
3. Negligence laws: The dog owner is liable if the injury occurred because he or she was unreasonably careless (negligent) in controlling the dog.
The owner of a dog, however, is not liable if the dog injures a trespasser.

The CDC recommends the following steps regarding human-dog interaction:
 Consult with a professional (e.g., veterinarian, animal behaviorist, or responsible breeder) to learn about suitable breeds of dogs for your household and neighborhood.
 Spend time with a dog before buying or adopting it. Use caution when bringing a dog into a home with an infant or toddler. Dogs with histories of aggression are inappropriate in households with children.
 Be sensitive to cues that a child is fearful of or apprehensive about a dog and, if so, delay acquiring a dog. Never leave infants or young children alone with any dog.
 Have your dog spayed or neutered. Studies show that dogs are three times more likely to bite if they are NOT neutered.
 Socialize your dog so it knows how to act with other people and animals.
 Discourage children from disturbing a dog that is eating or sleeping.
 Play non-aggressive games with your dog, such as “go fetch.” Playing aggressive games like “tug-of-war” can encourage inappropriate behavior.
 Avoid exposing your dog to new situations in which you are unsure of its response.
 Never approach a strange dog and always avoid eye contact with a dog that appears threatening.
 Immediately seek professional advice from veterinarians, animal behaviorists, or responsible breeders if the dog develops aggressive or undesirable behaviors.

Using these strategies should hopefully allow your personal relationship with Fido to be a positive one.

For the full article, click here.

At A. G. Gordon, we have an opportunity to work alongside many outstanding businesses, one of which is Trouwe Hond, a professional dog training and kennel business that is truly top in its class. If you have a dog, check out their site. And for more insurance information, as well as risk-management solutions, visit the A. G. Gordon, Inc. Website, or click here to recieve an online quote.

Simple Stuff, Insurance, and Other Things that are not Synonymous

A brief introduction; my name is Corbin, and I’ve been a social media engineer for Andrew G. Gordon, Inc. for the past 2 months. I’m about to enter my senior year of high school, and insurance is not an entity I’ve had any sort of contact with prior to this job. However, seeing as a succinct job summary of my position would be “gracing the internet with insurance information”, I’ve been exposed to a veritable hailstorm of news, literature, and media all relating to insurance. Poor metaphors aside, I have been able to catch a glimpse into the insurance world, and I’ve managed to cement a few rational impressions about insurance that I might as well share with the internet.

Impression the First:

INSURANCE IS COMPLICATED. Why did I exert the energy to depress the caps-lock key (twice!) in the previous sentence? Because it’s super important. Perhaps there was once a day when cavemen and wooly mammoths nonchalantly shot the breeze about easy to understand coverage and liability policies, but that age is now far in the past. The fact is that insurance is a very complicated entity to deal with, and it has to be, considering the services it must provide. So before you embark on an insurance venture, find good insurance information (trust me, it’s out there) and arm yourself. With some research, you will be an insurance wizard in no time. On an unrelated note, if you are at the point where you are searching for insurance information and stumbled upon this blog, I would like to extend to you the chance to view our website’s “whiteboard talks”. These are educational videos about insurance created for the benefit of humankind, and you can click here to take advantage of them.

Impression the Second:

The insurance industry is not an evil machine out to harm you. Despite this common misconception, every experience I’ve had working at A.G. Gordon, Inc. suggests to me that insurance companies make every effort to make the customer experience a good one. I’ve seen many examples of healthy insurance relationships, business and personal. Despite the generally formidable “street rep” of insurance companies, if you find a good agency, both insurer and policy-holder will be playing for the same team.

Impression the Third:

Understand your coverage. While this is loosely tied to impression the first, I feel it holds enough significance to earn its own paragraph. As I post blogs and summarize articles about insurance, I notice that there are fairly common issues that most people aren’t aware of. Did you know that if a dwelling in MA is left unoccupied for 60 days, the building is considered vacant and fire coverage is cancelled? I didn’t, which isn’t shocking, but neither did my parents, and we’ve moved over 10 times in the course of my childhood, often leaving vacant homes in our wake. How about that rust or other corrosion, mold, or wet or dry rot damage is not usually covered in homeowner’s policies? By taking time to do some policy research, you could save yourself some headaches down the road. And if you are currently a homeowner, I would advise you look at our homeowner’s checklist, a goldmine of good information.

And for topical and relevant insurance information and risk-management solutions, visit us at our website.

Home inventory – how to organize

Do you know how much “stuff” you own? Don’t find yourself scrambling to recreate a list of your possessions if you suffer a fire or other devastating loss. An up-to-date home inventory will help you get your home insurance settled faster, help you purchase the correct amount of insurance and verify losses for Uncle Sam when tax time rolls around.

Tackling the inventory list can be simplified if you:

- Take pictures of rooms and important individual items. Don’t forget to open your closets and drawers for items hidden from view.
- Videotape- walk through your house, condo or apartment videotaping and describing the contents. You can also do the same with a tape recorder.
- Use your computer- many personal finance software packages include room by room inventory software programs. Remember to send the list off-site to save in case the computer is damaged or ruined.
- Keep any photos or videos or receipts in your safety deposit box or at a friend’s home.
- Lastly, remember to update your list periodically so the inventory is current.
For more on taking the risk our of your home, visit our home page at www.agordon.com.

AIR announces new hurricane modeling

Warm summer breezes remind us in the insurance world that conditions ripen for tropical storms and hurricanes.  Hurricanes damage so much property over such large areas that forecasting the damage for all the landfall possibilities is important.  Having accurate tools for estimating costs that the industry can expect during hurricane season can make or break an insurance company.  Good data and accurate modeling are critical.

AIR Worldwide is one of the top modeling companies in the world, and they just announced the next generation model.  These are enormously complex models that take into consideration wind estimates, construction types (e.g. frame vs. masonry or steel), new building codes in vulnerable areas and other variables.  For more, visit AIR’s recent press release on the issue. http://www.air-worldwide.com/NewsAndEventsItem.aspx?id=19474

For more on home and property insurance for your home or business, visit www.agordon.com.