The summer months in California are beautiful. From clear skies to radiant sunshine, there’s nothing better than spending a day poolside with friends and family in Vista, CA. Whether you’re hosting people at your home, or just spending time with the kids, summer safety should be a priority.
Accidents can happen at any time. It’s important for homeowners to ensure their property is safe and comfortable for everyone. Alta Vista Insurance Agency provides you with this guide on important safety steps to take at your home.
Summer Safety Steps Around Your Home
Monitor Pool Activity
Swimming pools are a popular pastime but they can also be dangerous. In addition to rules for everyone to follow, you should monitor activity happening in and around your pool 24/7. It only takes a moment for disasters to occur.
Consider Fire Hazards
Summer is the height of grilling season, fireworks displays, and bonfires. Open flames can travel quickly and spread. You should never leave grills unattended or use them close to the home . Improper use of fireworks or risky behaviors around a bonfire can also lead to fire-related injuries. To put fires out quickly and reduce the chances of spread, keep a fire extinguisher close by.
Bug & Pesticide Safety
From bees to mosquitos, it’s important to protect yourself from stings and harm caused by bites. Wear loose clothing, don’t hang around areas with sitting water, and use protection on our skin. With any pesticides and chemicals, be vigilant about their use and storage to avoid improper exposure.
At Alta Vista Insurance Agency in Vista, CA, we understand that having a fun and relaxing summer is the goal for most households. Gain peace of mind knowing you’re protected at all times. Contact our team to discuss your coverage needs and get more information.
Buying a home is an exciting life milestone. To make the most of homeownership, you will need to have proper homeownership in place. At Alta Vista Insurance Agency, we make it our job to provide our clients with solid insurance information so that they can make the best insurance decision. Keep reading to see how we can help you in Vista, CA and the surrounding areas.
Why Is Home Insurance Important?
If you have a mortgage on your home, your mortgage company will usually require that you have home insurance in place. Even if your mortgage company does not require this, it is always a good idea to have insurance in place. You have made a huge investment in your home. In addition to this, your home provides a huge part of your family’s security. If something happens to your home, you will be held financially responsible for repairs or replacement, and if your home is unlivable you will have nowhere to live. Home insurance removes these risks.
What Does Home Insurance Cover?
A home insurance policy can be customized to suit your particular needs. However, most home insurance will cover the following general areas.
Property damage: If your home is damaged or lost, the insurance will pay for repairs or replacement of your home. This can cover damage from fire, natural disasters and burglary.
Liability- If someone is injured at your home or on your property, you could be held liable for any medical bills or legal fees that resulted from the incident. This type of coverage will protect you from the financial vulnerability that could result from such an event.
If you would like to learn more about home insurance or any of our other insurance products, please contact us at Alta Vista Insurance Agency, serving Vista, CA and the surrounding areas.
Homeowner’s insurance offers a level of protection for all of your personal belongings, including your home. Although it may seem like a huge and unnecessary task, creating an inventory list of your assets can ensure you receive full compensation in the event a file needs to be claimed. Alta Vista Insurance Agency wants to share with Vista, CA homeowners a little bit about home inventory lists.
What Is a Home Inventory List Exactly?
A home inventory is just a list of your personal belongings. This list needs to be as detailed as possible. For instance, you should include make and model, date of purchase, amount paid, serial numbers, etc. If possible, include a purchase receipt, as this makes it easier to identify the value of your losses in the event of a monsoon or fire.
When Should You Make a Home Inventory List?
If you have yet to create a home inventory list, now is the perfect time to do so. You never know when something unexpected could occur, so having a home inventory list created and ready to go will help speed up the claims process. Ideally, you should update this list at least once annually. The best approach, though, is to simply remove and add items as you sell them and buy them.
Where Should You Keep Your Home Inventory List?
You have to keep in mind that an event that could potentially damage your personal belongings could also damage your home inventory list. While there is nothing wrong with keeping a copy of the list at home and/or with you, it is a good idea to keep a copy of the list in the cloud and/or in a safe deposit box.
Whether you have recently purchased a home or have been living in your Vista, CA home for some time, let Alta Vista Insurance Agency ensure you have sufficient homeowner’s insurance coverage for your needs.
In this episode I talk with my good friend Alec about the basics of solar when it comes to homeownership. We talk about some important things to know when thinking about adding solar to a home and what to look for when purchasing a home with solar installed.
Alec also shares some great information about other home improvements that can reduce your power usage and out of pocket expenses.
We had a great conversation and I learned a lot about the benefits of solar and ways to be more efficient with our power usage when it comes to residential real estate.
Learn how to properly insure your solar! Setup an appointment and we can review your insurance and help you be financially protected. Looking for a better solution to insure your real estate property? Save money and get a quote today!
Owning your own home provides a great feeling of accomplishment and security. Your home is probably one of the biggest investments you will make in life. Not only is it a huge financial investment, but your house also holds great sentimental value as being the place your family calls home. For these reasons, as well as others, your home must be properly insured. At Alta Vista Insurance Agency, serving Vista, CA, we take great pride in educating our clients and future clients on these important insurance topics. Keep reading to find out what you need to know about home insurance.
Why Is Home Insurance Important?
Because your home is such a huge financial investment, there is much at risk if your home becomes damaged or unlivable. If your home sustains damage due to fire, natural disaster, or burglary, you could find yourself in a financially vulnerable position. Home insurance is set in place to defer this financial vulnerability so that you and your family can recover from a disaster.
Beyond the risk of damage, there is also the risk of someone being injured in your home or on your property. If this happens, you could be held liable for their medical expenses and possibly legal expenses in some cases. Insurance can also protect you in these situations.
What Does Home Insurance Cover?
Home insurance will cover:
Property damage – If your home is damaged due to fire, natural disaster, or burglary, your policy will pay to have your home repaired or replaced or your possessions replaced in the case of burglary.
Liability – If someone is injured on your property, liability will pay for medical expenses or legal expenses.
If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact Alta Vista Insurance Agency, serving Vista, CA today.
Labor day marks the end of summer and usually the return to school. But here in California it also means the beginning of fire season. Sadly, this year is no exception with over 1.2 million acres burned so far this year nationwide.
What does this mean for insuring my property? Many insurance carriers are on new business binding moratorium. Meaning they have closed zip codes where there are active fires. If you are shopping for home insurance, or in escrow and trying to close, this can mean delays in the transaction process.
How else should I prepare? Consider making sure your policy protection is up to date. Standard homeowners insurance policies cover fire and your contents, but more and more frequently we are seeing the standard carriers declining homes for brush. Luckily there is a program set up through the state called the California Fair Plan. However, California Fair Plan policy only covers the structure for fire, and does not provide liability, loss of use, or contents coverage. For that you will need another policy called a “Difference in Conditions” or DIC policy. With the two policies together, you have similar coverage to a normal homeowners policy.
What Are My Next Steps? To learn more about insuring your home in California start by comparing home insurance quotes on our website. If you would prefer to speak to a licensed insurance guide; book an online appointment with one of our agents.
After the recent 6.4 magnitude earthquake on July 4th and the 7.1 quake on July 5th, more and more residents understand that earthquake risk is REAL in Southern California. The seismic activity was centered around the towns of Trona and Ridgecrest, but the aftershocks were felt from LA to San Diego.
This last round of earthquake activity has shocked many California residents into rethinking the importance of earthquake insurance to protect their homes and assets.
If you’re looking to fully protect your lifestyle, it is highly recommended you purchase earthquake insurance…Now.
Other than wildfire, earthquakes are one of the leading natural disasters Californians face. Most residents live within 30 miles of an active fault line and only 10% of California residents carry earthquake insurance. 10 percent!
Does it make a lot of sense to partially insure your most valuable asset, your home?
Insurance tip: A residential property insurance policy does NOT cover damage due to earthquake or seismic activity. You need a separate earthquake insurance policy.
Watch this short video about the benefits of carrying earthquake insurance. Contact one of our insurance guides and get an earthquake insurance quote for your home today! Call 888-724-2124.
Can I purchase earthquake insurance after an earthquake? Yes.
The Department of Insurance released a bulletin on July 12th about the requirement of all California Earthquake Authority participating insurance companies to write CEA earthquake policies.
In response to the Northridge earthquake in 1994, the California Legislature created the California Earthquake Authority (CEA)—a not-for-profit, publicly managed, privately funded entity. Residential property insurers could offer their own earthquake insurance or become a CEA participating insurance company.
CEA provides two-thirds of the residential earthquake insurance policies sold in California. By selling policies exclusively through these participating insurance companies, CEA has become one of the largest providers of residential earthquake insurance in the world. The CEA is a not-for-profit organization and receives no funding from the State of California, whether for operations or claim liabilities, and is not a part of the state budget. CEA is financed solely through insurer contributions, policyholder premiums, and its own investment returns.
Following the recent earthquakes in Ridgecrest, the Department of Insurance received numerous complaints that some CEA participating insurers were denying applications for CEA earthquake insurance coverage from insureds who already had a residential underlying insurance policy with that insurance company.
Many agents and brokers were misinforming their clients that there is a “moratorium” on selling CEA coverage, even to those insureds who have an underlying insurance policy with that insurance company.
That is FALSE. There is NO moratorium on selling CEA coverage.
California Insurance Code Section 10083 requires that offers for earthquake coverage made by a Participating Insurer contain a specific disclosure that includes the statement, “If you choose not to accept this offer within the 30-day period, you may apply for earthquake coverage at a later date.” Refusing to write CEA earthquake insurance coverage for policyholders with a residential insurance policy is not in compliance with state law or the intent of the CEA statute and mission.
The CEA has confirmed to the Department of Insurance that it expects all participating insurers to take applications for and bind CEA coverage if requested by an insured who has an underlying residential insurance policy with the insurer.
A moratorium on earthquake insurance has never been declared by the CEA. Some participating insurers have declared a moratorium on the sale of their own new homeowners and other fire insurance policies in areas of California impacted by the recent Ridgecrest earthquakes.
And if that company is not writing new property insurance policies then they would not be making the accompanying mandatory offer of earthquake insurance to those homeowners.
However, this should NOT effect current insureds with a residential insurance policy from a CEA participating insurer. They should be assisted in purchasing a new CEA policy immediately.
“So, if you have property insurance from an insurance company that participates with the California Eathquake Authority you can purchase earthquake insurance NOW.”
Contact us and we can review your home insurance policy and tell you if your company offers earthquake insurance protection with the California Earthquake Authority. We’ll also do a coverage check up to make sure you have the right protection for your lifestyle. Give us a call at 888-724-2124.
You need the best protection for your hard work and home.
That can be confusing when you live and work in the same place, like on a farm.
How do you classify a farm house? A winery or orchard with a dwelling on it?
Click the photo below or click here to read our article that offers a clear explanation for why and when you need a separate policy from your homeowners policy. We’ve also included a tip to avoid lapsing coverage when you buy new equipment.
Would you marry someone whose history was a mystery? Or are you prone to purchase a car without knowing the facts of its past?
To connect you with the history of a home you’re considering, we’re offering a free report, guaranteed to give you peace of mind and help you avoid time and money-wasting complications during and after the sale.
Get a clue! Come on, seriously.
A C.L.U.E., the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, is a loss history information exchange provided by LexisNexis® Risk Solutions Inc. It enables insurance companies to access and use prior loss information in the underwriting process. Think of it as “the cloud of claims”.
Here’s how it works
Each month, participating insurers submit loss information to the C.L.U.E. information exchange, which is loaded to the C.L.U.E. database. Insurance companies request this data by forwarding search criteria such as an insurance applicant’s name, risk address, date of birth, and Social Security Number. The C.L.U.E. system searches its database for information that matches the requested search criteria. A C.L.U.E. report is then generated and forwarded to the insurer. When you or your insurance company receive a C.L.U.E. report, it includes all losses accessed by the search criteria that were reported to us within seven years of the date of the request. Home warranty claims are not included on a C.L.U.E. report.
The C.L.U.E. report is a valuable piece of information to provide you a clearer look into the prior loss history of the property you’re peeking at.
Reading the report
First, you want to look for claims associated with the risk address. The report can sometimes show claims filed on another location owned or occupied by the seller. You’ll want to look for claims frequency rather than severity. These would be claims that indicate a potential ongoing problem or the possibility for future losses. Multiple occurrences to the same areas in the home can indicate faulty or defective systems. For example, water losses and mold are big ones to look for and are one of the most widely reported causes of loss or perils. Other perils to watch out for are fires occurring in the home, not wildfire, and theft or burglary. These type of losses could indicate morale hazards or the home could be in a questionable area. Insurance companies are tightening their guidelines when it comes to water losses resulting from inside water damage, not weather related flood claims. Effective this year, many admitted insurance carriers will decline a risk if there has been a significant water loss on the property within the last 3-5 years. This would include damage exceeding $2,500. Normally, losses follow the insured and can impact the cost of insurance or insurability when moving to a new location. Due to the rise in frequency and extensive costs resulting from water damage claims. more and more companies are looking at water losses at new business and declining.
One Final Thought
The cost of the damage is important and can indicate the severity of the incident and the amount paid by the insurance company for the loss. Accidents happen. Just because a property has been impacted by a large claim or series of claims does not mean you should avoid buying that house. Review the report with your realtor and request a disclosure from the sellers about how the claims were resolved. Were all repairs completed and was everything built back to code? Was the home replaced with like kind and quality?
Talk to your insurance agent about the loss(es) that were filed, how the insurance companies handled the claims and how this will impact insurance for the home moving forward.
