What's that Popping sound?

Waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of sirens and loud popping is never a good thing. I remember a few years back this is what happened to me. Little did I know at the time that a major home insurance claim was in the process of happening.
As I stuck my head out the front door that night it sounded a bit like a war zone. I couldn’t see or smell anything funky. I was left confused by what could possibly be going on. I decided the best course of action was to stay inside the house in case those pops were random bullets exploding.
The next morning I decided it was time to investigate what happened. It didn’t take long for me to find several fire trucks parked in front of a home around the corner. The neighbors were outside staring at the burned house talking amongst themselves. The garage looked pretty scorched by flames, the garage doors were mangled and pulled apart. An old VW Beetle was charred and smoking in the garage. When I got to the office I quickly found a story about what had happened. In the middle of the night the family inside called the fire department when they noticed smoke coming from their garage. The family safely exited the home and waited for help to arrive. When the fire department arrived they found an old VW Bug fully engulfed in flames which in turn had lit the entire garage and floor above the garage on fire. The damage from the flames and the smoke was extensive.
I did a quick search to see if we were the insurance company covering the home, we were not. But, I did see that they had gotten a quote a few months prior. We had certainly dodged a major home insurance loss when they decided to stay with their current carrier or go with some other insurance company.
Over the next few days the home was boarded up. The family that lived there found a rental property close by and waited for the home to be repaired.  The process of filing a home claim is still similar to filing an auto claim. You call your insurance company, they send an insurance adjuster to view the damage. In this case they would have come out and given the insured a check to get them relocated. The adjuster would then do an inventory of what was lost in the fire. The tools, the Christmas decorations and everything else that was lost due to the fire would be covered under your Personal Property coverage. Most policies provide Replacement Cost coverage. That means they give you money to buy new stuff to replace the old stuff that was lost. If you have a policy that says you have Actual Cash Value, that means they will give you money based off the current value of your belongings. So, if you have an old pair of Nike’s that got destroyed they will give you 25 cents, instead of money to buy a new pair of shoes. Make sure you spend the little extra to get the replacement coverage. The house itself is covered under your Dwelling coverage. The dwelling is anything attached to your home including garages, carports and patios. Now, for that VW Beetle. One would think if it burned up in a house fire your home insurance would cover it. It does not. Your auto insurance would cover the car under Comprehensive coverage. And that means you might be paying two deductibles, one for the house repair and the other to replace the car. Some companies offer to waive one deductible if a claim on two things happens at the same time, others do not do that.
After what seemed like a year, the house was finally fixed. The car was replaced and the insured moved on with their lives. They however have never parked the VW in the garage again, poor little car is taking a beating from the sun these days, but can you blame them? If you’d like to talk about your insurance coverage give us a call at 951-395-0754 or visit www.socalinsured.com.