Surprise: Wind and hail deductible as a percentage of home value?
My son had a tree come down hitting house and deck. I went to see it and wanted to help clear it but wife and DIL said "no way is an old coot like you gonna do that". (I just cleared the patio door with a Sawzall and due to the background noise, gave up.) I told him "well, this is what we have insurance for".
The surprise came when my son called the insurance claims people:
the policy has a '2% of home value' deductible on wind and hail damage.
A quick guesstimate of damages on my part added up to about $15,000 and so if the house is worth 500k (guess), the deductible is $10,000.
This was a surprise to him as he thought, as with other losses, he had a $1000 deductible policy. This is a new thing to me also. I will be checking our policy.
I asked why he didn't know about it. He had no answer just said it wasn't made clear to him.
Why is there a simple 'closing costs declaration sheet' when buying a house and another when buying a car contains disclosure that describes what you are purchasing yet nothing exists for an insurance purchase. (It was pages in on the policy yet the $1k was prominently
shown several times).
Insurance is becoming one of the biggest home cost outlays today.
In an era when an unexpected $500 car repair bull can send a family budget into a frenzy, an unexpected home repair bill of this size is more than just a curve ball.
As home values spiral I suggest you check your homeowners policy.
Not the kind of surprises we need.
Regards to all,
R
