Purchasing expensive jewelry, silverware or other valuables for your house can provide a sense of luxury within your personal space, but it can also complicate your home insurance policy. While every policy is different, there are usually limits that you can claim on one specific item or valuable in your basic policy.

Limitations

In many cases, insurance companies will put a set limit on the maximum you can claim for specific items. For example, jewelry or that expensive silverware may only be covered up to $2,000, even if your policy allows you to claim as much as 50 percent of the total policy amount for furniture and other items in case a fire or similar situation results in a total loss of personal property.

The limits that are set on valuables can vary based on the policy, so you may need to evaluate your plan to determine the specific limitation amount.

Buying Additional Protection

If a single item costs more than the amount that your insurance provider will offer in coverage, then it may be time to consider additional coverage for the item. It is usually appropriate to protect all of your valuables on a separate policy unless your insurer will pay for the full replacement cost of the item.

Additional coverage may be added to your plan whenever it is needed, so it may be possible to add to your policy after receiving a gift or making a new purchase for your home.

Protecting the high-cost items that you keep in your home often requires additional protection to ensure that your belongings are safe in case a fire, theft or similar disaster occurs. Contact us to speak to an agent for more details about your options today.

New York State has strict laws in place to protect homeowners from having their home insurance arbitrarily canceled or not renewed. Your insurance company can not leave you without coverage on your Albany-area home without first giving you proper notice.

The big difference between cancellation and non-renewal of your homeowners policy is that with the former, you must have done something wrong, while with the latter, it may simply be a choice of your insurance company.

Once your policy has been in effect for 60 days, it can not be canceled unless you violate the terms of your contractual agreement. Your policy may be subject to cancelation if you fail to pay your premium, are found to have lied or committed fraud to obtain the policy, file false claims or commit willful acts or omissions that increase the risk of the hazard or hazards that your home is insured against. Your homeowners insurance can also be canceled if you make material changes to your property that makes it uninsurable under the stated terms of your policy.

If none of these conditions have occurred, your policy may not be canceled or non-renewed for a period of three years. After that point, your insurance company can refuse to renew your policy. When your policy is subject to cancelation, it can occur at any time during the policy year. When your homeowners insurance is not renewed, it means that it will remain in effect until the date of renewal, assuming you stay current on your premium payments.

If you have a loss and file a claim, it will probably not result in a non-renewal. However, if you file three or four small claims in a year, your insurance company may deem you to be a high-risk customer and decide not to renew your policy for the upcoming year.

When you are a client of NY Twin Bridges Insurance Agency, you have a friend who will look out for your best interests. If you should receive a cancelation notice or a letter stating that you will not be renewed, don’t panic. As your independent agent, we can get you quotes from a number of other insurers and find you an affordable policy to protect your home.

When you own the land upon which a contractor is building your new home, your current homeowners insurance may cover you for some liability, but in Albany, New York–and the rest of the nation–most standard policies will not cover theft or damage to your building materials. This includes materials sitting on your property or already installed in your new home.

One of you, your building contractor or yourself, must have a Builder’s Risk Policy to cover damage to your new property while it’s under construction. It depends on which of you and the contractor are the "owner" of the building materials. Only the "owner" has an insurable interest in the under-construction property.

More than building materials theft must be covered. as even more hazards face your under-construction home. Windstorms, fire and water damage can be even more risky with unoccupied, partially-complete houses in New York. Builder’s Risk insurance gives you the protection you need.

This policy covers the cost to rebuild your home, along with theft of building materials that are onsite during construction. Do not depend on your current homeowners policy to protect your new home construction period. In most cases, if you pay for the building materials delivered to your land for your contractor’s use, you–not your contractor–is the legal owner of these items. Therefore, it is you who have the insurable interest in this material.

When you build a new home on your property, do at least two things.

• Understand the ramifications of the "owners" of the building materials used.
• Understand the limitations of your current homeowners insurance coverage, to be sure you have sufficient liability coverage, should a visitor to your construction site suffer injury, and ensure you are covered for common risks of loss.

When you build a new home in Albany, Saratoga Springs or Schenectady, contact NY Twin Bridges Insurance Agency, serving the Albany area as an independent agent, with access to over 40 top rated insurance companies. You can get multiple online quotes to find the affordable you need to protect your new home.

Is it possible to actually profit from a disaster? Some homeowners might think so, by merely taking out two homeowners insurance policies on their home from two different companies, then collecting double the benefit when a disaster occurs. As it turns out, this probably isn’t a good idea, and it certainly won’t help you cash in on a disaster.

In Albany, New York, it is perfectly legal to have two homeowners insurance policies–that’s not the problem. The problem is that you are only going to get paid for whatever a single claim is worth, not both claims. If you have two insurance policies and you make a claim with both, you’ll get the exact same amount of money you would get from a single claim, and the insurance companies get to work out how much of that claim each one pays. In the meantime, you get the fun and excitement of paying two premiums to get the exact same coverage you would get from one. Not such a great scheme, is it?

Knowing that you really only benefit from having one homeowners insurance policy, you should really try to choose the best one possible. The best way to do that is with an independent agent who can get you comparative quotes on homeowners insurance. If you live in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs, Albany or elsewhere in New York, we here at NY Twin Bridges Insurance Agency are the independent agents who can do just that. You can use our website to get live comparative quotes from multiple insurers so that you can make the right decision and get the best possible coverage for the best possible price.